A noob is going to quit when.....

[trungdle]

Last time I quitted when I thought the only thing I can make is a pile of wood and imagine it will take me a longtime to get another recipe. So more starting recipe or a way to show people that you are 30 second from being awesome is great.
also the lack of an explaination on how to process items, like right click, shift, control, etc. confuses people who could have make good survivor gammers. They are just inexperienced because of AAA titles spoils. Give them a chance.
oh hell yeah language. You make the game translatable, I swear i will burn at least a month doing it for free for you into Vietnamese.
Oh and a better launcher with information makes the game feel more professional. With current event, forum post, update notes and even newly made art. That can be before we hit the sign in button. Also register the game for java security lol.

[Procne]

Most of my IRL friends quit when we started Salem because the lack of information on how to do things. I was the only one who bothered to check the wiki for everything, so I continued playing.

Do you think we are better off creating paragraph long tooltips on the crafting build menus giving people a shove in the right direction? Or leave Salem to the explorers who will figure it out?

Maybe not tooltips on the crafting menus, but some info in the tutorial. For example on how to fill buckets, how to make fire. You know, so that people learn that they can select items and use on other items. Just to learn the mechanics. There is enough room for discoveries with the skills. As a newbie I had most fun from unlocking new skills, learning them and seeing what new I can make.

[McTc]

Cheesy line of quests could work too. Rewards could be inspirationals and ultimately a claim deed.

something like that would get the player going. series of quest, to help understand how to get skills, why to get skills, how to make money on your first days, as an example what happens when you get KO-d, what to consider when choosing where to settle. so by the time they finish the quests, they will know to venture off from the area where the guy from town took ya, and place a brand new claim and start building their home on their own.
If you do small rewards, i believe you can pack things in that 30 min. etc when showing how to make money, let them build drying rack, put their first rabbit hide onto, and reward would be that the hide will magically dry in few sec, showing tooltip that usually it takes some hours. bu the end of quests player should know to protect themselves, how to make money including how to trade and not get scammed, and they should feel confident and know what to do first after placeing their claim.

as i am already in game, i think that tutorial should be optional, but to further discourage alts, it should be mandatory to all new chars

[trungdle]

as i am already in game, i think that tutorial should be optional, but to further discourage alts, it should be mandatory to all new chars

Im with you make it 3 hours long pls

[RuneNL]

Most of my IRL friends quit when we started Salem because the lack of information on how to do things. I was the only one who bothered to check the wiki for everything, so I continued playing.

In this day and age we are spoiled by hand holding and having things done and made clear for us like we are mentally challanged... I think a more clearer path on what to do and how to do it (starting up) is important.

Intuitive gameplay is always most preferred when introducing a new player.

Anyway, same here; my friends quit because it was unclear for them what to do.

[LOMS]

There is also a problem when newb can't stockpile or protect his stuff.

Probably, when you spawn in the wilderness, the guide shold teach you just a bit, maybe even give you some trivial quests. As a reward, he can provide some inspirational points, beginner's claim paper*, furniture (like chest) etc.

_
*restricted by some options, life time, claim size, cost of eminent domain etc, but upgradable to regular claim with paper.

[GaganSandrider]

There should be info that some things have to be bought / obtained from other players, and cannot be made by a newbie. Example: iron and nails. I remember that I spent some time trying to figure out where to get the nails as a newbie, I just assumed I can make everything on my own.

Having spent a long time trying to figure out how to make "Planks" I finally figured out that I needed a Saw bench. The Saw bench however needed Iron nails. I spent hours trying to figure out how to get those Iron Nails. Eventually I found that I needed to smelt the iron and craft it into nails but I couldn't build the smelter without Iron Nails as a base component. This was infuriating and nearly led me to quit. An explanation that some items need to be bought initially would be of benefit.

Also a clearer direction of where items can be sold.

Gagan

[Argentis]

Make an adopt a noob system for veteran players to new players. With a candidacy for the veterans to sift through (because we don't want to teach to someone who don't speak our language or who will quit anyway) and rewards (could be silver for both the new player and the veteran). That would be hard to put in place and even harder with real life delays and obligations and I guess we could try to implement this on our own but some MMOs have tried this system with some success.

[trungdle]

Make an adopt a noob system for veteran players to new players. With a candidacy for the veterans to sift through (because we don't want to teach to someone who don't speak our language or who will quit anyway) and rewards (could be silver for both the new player and the veteran). That would be hard to put in place and even harder with real life delays and obligations and I guess we could try to implement this on our own but some MMOs have tried this system with some success.

Chinese noodle game did, for years. We call them the mentor system. Bot appears, it dies off.

[Argentis]

Make an adopt a noob system for veteran players to new players. With a candidacy for the veterans to sift through (because we don't want to teach to someone who don't speak our language or who will quit anyway) and rewards (could be silver for both the new player and the veteran). That would be hard to put in place and even harder with real life delays and obligations and I guess we could try to implement this on our own but some MMOs have tried this system with some success.

Chinese noodle game did, for years. We call them the mentor system. Bot appears, it dies off.

Except that I would assume botting in Salem is significantly harder than in any other MMO. The game is much harder to play with more complex mechanics and no pathfinding*. Moreover I think it would be easier to spot and if I remember correctly the devs have a system in place against botting (but I do agree that a perfect system do not exist and there may be some botting in Salem).

*On the pathfinding alone: I tried to make a macro that would make my character move in a straight line for exploration purposes. First it was just a push "W" macro for X seconds. Repeat. Then I got stuck to an obstacle. So it was: Push "W" for X Seconds. Push "S" for Y seconds, then "Q" for Z seconds. Repeat. Then I found myself stuck at a cliff. I added a double click function to my macro from time to time to climb up or down the ridges but my cat chose to push away my mouse. Fail.