WarMongerian
Refugee
Thanks. In my group, my own playtime far exceeds my group's joint playties. sp for now. I'll have to post about my solo playthrough.I didn't mean it in a bad way. That's dedication! I miss being able to play that much lol![]()
Thanks. In my group, my own playtime far exceeds my group's joint playties. sp for now. I'll have to post about my solo playthrough.I didn't mean it in a bad way. That's dedication! I miss being able to play that much lol![]()
Folks are talking like the choice is to:
1) do the quest, and get the 4 skill points, or
2) opt out of the quest, and not get those 4 points.
As an experienced player why do you feel you need a 4-point headstart and guidance to the trader?
maybe the best solution would be to treat everything at game start as optional new player tools that could be toggled:
Starting food & water. On/off
Starting tutorial. On/off
4-point head start. On/off
First trader beacon. On/off
Debuff Immunity On/Off
people could choose which items they wanted and it wouldn’t be set up like a quest and rewards.
Something is this line of argument is a little off. Mainly "is designed" .. maybe it's designed as something, but for now the implementation fails to deliver a difference between new/experienced. Thus making that claim about its design is outside the scope of things we can experience.The 4-point headstart and the trader beacon are designed for new players. Experienced players should easily be able to handle the challenge of starting from 0 points and searching for the trader on their own.
A few things about me.Yes, because that's how all quests in the game work. Do the job and get the reward. Have you tried canceling the quest and just starting from zero points and earning those four points playing how you want and finding the trader on your own? I think it is far superior to doing the quest anyway.
The 4-point headstart and the trader beacon are designed for new players. Experienced players should easily be able to handle the challenge of starting from 0 points and searching for the trader on their own.
As an experienced player why do you feel you need a 4-point headstart and guidance to the trader?
The implementation absolutely does deliver a difference between new/experienced. It’s called opening the quest menu and canceling the tutorial quest. Canceling a quest is something any experienced player knows how to do and if they do it the game will deliver a significantly different experience. The four points is pretty trivial since they are very easy to gain through normal play but not automatically knowing where the trader is makes the early game much more challenging unless you guess the right direction to start walking. Since this can all be enacted within the game using the existing UI buttons to cancel the quest in exactly the same way all quests may be canceled it is part of the game design.Something is this line of argument is a little off. Mainly "is designed" .. maybe it's designed as something, but for now the implementation fails to deliver a difference between new/experienced. Thus making that claim about its design is outside the scope of things we can experience.
Who said anything about never spending skill points? I said that instead of getting the 4 skill points from doing the tutorial you earn them by playing the game. You still get the points and can spend them.Can we play the game without ever spending a skill point? Yes. Not exactly a problem.
I agree that the four points is trivial so I doubt the game becomes unbalanced because you started the game from 0 instead of 4. For an experienced player it is still simplicity to stay ahead of the game’s difficulty curve even with such a slow start. I’ve certainly not noticed any bad balance against me by forgoing the points and I started skipping the tutorial quest years ago.But as long as the game doesn't actually remove the "newbie-buffs", we have to assume the skill system is designed and balanced With those points, not without them. Not that the balancing is even able to be strict enough to really care about 4 points, at best it'd become a question of how much cheese is ideal.
Then again, the starter quest - especially the current streamlined version - takes about a minute, so the "jumping thru the hoops" -claim is rather mundane in itself. It costs you a couple pebbles and splinters, just spam thru it to get going.. consider it testing out the controls for your new session...![]()
All right, everything you can do, is designed gameplay? When's the last session you repeatedly mined for stone to toss it away a pebble at a time with the awesome stone toss mechanic, until you died of hunger? That's designed gameplay, and a great challenge, I'm sure.Since this can all be enacted within the game using the existing UI buttons to cancel the quest in exactly the same way all quests may be canceled it is part of the game design.
I would assume I did, as you're quoting me speaking of it. Why did I do it? Because it's a higher class of "reducing your skill point gain", it entirely covers your case of "reducing your skill points by 4", and is a little more difficult challenge, but completely feasible in the current implementation. It's essentially a claim that the challenge provided by -4 is rather negligible, thus I don't consider it "stupid". I just consider it "not intended gameplay".Who said anything about never spending skill points?
If TFP agreed, they surely would have disabled the starter quest for anything above normal difficulty?The start of game freebies are too OP for anyone but a newbie.
...do things on their own, and all they wanted from the game was just a fast track to endgame content.
I hate that.
I see my example a bit differently than just doing some inane task repeatedly just because it’s allowed. People are asking to be able to skip the tutorial quest and TFP has provided the answer: Hit the cancel button. A button for skipping any quest is already part of the game.All right, everything you can do, is designed gameplay? When's the last session you repeatedly mined for stone to toss it away a pebble at a time with the awesome stone toss mechanic, until you died of hunger? That's designed gameplay, and a great challenge, I'm sure.
Or maybe it's not. Maybe I mean something a little different. I find it hard to believe that TFP would've implemented this system towards the design goal that "experienced players will not have those 4 skill points". You can do it, but the game doesn't disable it for you, now does it even give a verbal suggestion towards it. If it's designed as such, the Implementation does Not match the stated design.
If you say so. I’m not sure that canceling a quest and thus forfeiting the reward is the same as voluntarily never spending any skill points but just at a lower degree. Canceling the quest and not getting the 4points isn’t the same as foregoing the 4 points and never spending them. You are still going to get the 4 points and spend them— just by other means.I would assume I did, as you're quoting me speaking of it. Why did I do it? Because it's a higher class of "reducing your skill point gain", it entirely covers your case of "reducing your skill points by 4", and is a little more difficult challenge, but completely feasible in the current implementation. It's essentially a claim that the challenge provided by -4 is rather negligible, thus I don't consider it "stupid". I just consider it "not intended gameplay".
That’s one assumption. Another is that they allow players to make the choice of doing the quest or canceling it using the provided button to do so. I could just as easily say that if they disagreed they surely by now would have included a no tutorial start where you still get 4 free points and they never have.If TFP agreed, they surely would have disabled the starter quest for anything above normal difficulty?
Have you actually tried it or are you speaking from hypotheticals? I invite you to try a standard start and cancel the tutorial quest. It definitely increases the variability of your start. Sometimes it is trivial if you find the trader right away. But there have also been games where I didn’t find the trader for a few days. It’s not a huge challenge but it isn’t so trivial as you are making it out to be. If it were then more people would do it to avoid the tutorial. When you have people doing a tutorial quest they despise all to get 4 points and a trader beacon then you know it isn’t so trivial in their eyes.I take the points and the compass marker, with my few thousand hours in the game; not because I need them, but because they're essentially trivial anyway. Removing either doesn't change anything, at worst it makes the run to your first trader take a couple minutes longer due to lack of cardio and horrible spawn luck.
I ... honest to god, I have no idea how you see the two different. <Insert meme: They're the same picture>Canceling the quest and not getting the 4points isn’t the same as foregoing the 4 points and never spending them.
They intentionally allow the players to be "OP"? I guess we disagree on the meaning of "overpowered" as well then. For me, that means something "essentially broken". Simply "powerful" would be a version that isn't broken.Another is that they allow players to make the choice of doing the quest or canceling it using the provided button to do so.
Want to.If you want to skip a quest hit the buttons provided to skip the quest.
Yes I've tried it, and I'm also capable of logical thinking. Thinking back to my starts, especially lately, a large majority have been basically at a city, with a trader, with zero effect from having the marker. Other than mild annoyance at a cluttered world view. And in this iteration spawning in an actual middle of nowhere is just annoying with thirst/dysentery being what it is without POIs.Have you actually tried it or are you speaking from hypotheticals?
If a 2 minute quest at the start of a game is something one despises.. I can't help them. Complain, sure. Heh, some of those complaint posts take longer to write than the sum of the starter quests they've done thus far. But complaining is cathartic. Getting that 4 points at that cost is delicious. Pointless, but delicious.When you have people doing a tutorial quest they despise all to get 4 points and a trader beacon then you know it isn’t so trivial in their eyes.
I ... honest to god, I have no idea how you see the two different. <Insert meme: They're the same picture>
1) Do the quest, leave the 4 skill points untouched.
2) Cancel the quest, leave the 4 points unearned.
All of these are simply the player choosing not to utilize 4 available skill points. That choice alone will practically never change a single action you take in the game. You clean the same POIs, you fight the same battles, you build the same base.
Now, if you include the trader marker into the mix, then yeah, there's a small difference if it happens to combine with terrible spawn luck. I don't pretend to know what the intent for spawning is, some RWG iterations have spawned you straight at the trader, most seem to have you spawn within shouting distance of a city, mostly with a trader attached. Only by horrible luck (as in, "very rarely") have I found myself in the middle of nowhere such that I've had to travel a lot to find the first trader. Usually there's at least a road to follow, which will lead me to one within the first day. High ground and maybe some nerdpoling will give good enough of a grasp of the surroundings if completely lost, even with the RWG iterations that forgot to make the roads. But even the worst case costs you a couple days of wandering in the wilderness; it's a neat change of pace, but overall a rather pointless experience. Your first week just has less days.
They intentionally allow the players to be "OP"? I guess we disagree on the meaning of "overpowered" as well then. For me, that means something "essentially broken". Simply "powerful" would be a version that isn't broken.
The "button provided" seems to be intended as more of a "changed my mind, I want another quest instead" -function, rather than a difficulty tuning one. And for EA phase a "nvm this buggy mess that doesn't spawn, I'll just get on with my life" -function. It's there because removing it for a specific quest would be extra work - and there's no real reason to disable it.
The claim I disagreed with was:
"The 4-point headstart and the trader beacon are designed for new players."
New players are just as able to disable the tutorial quest as the veterans are. If they want to.
The implementation does in no way indicate that you're "not supposed to" take advantage of it after certain experience. Claiming that that specific feature is "for newbies only" seems to stem from the fact that it happens to be a playstyle you prefer, and you see yourself as an experienced player, so, other experienced players must agree? Just a case of honest hubris?
1) Do the quest, leave the 4 skill points untouched.
2) Cancel the quest, leave the 4 points unearned.
That's because you are setting up this false premise and acting like it is mine. Here is the real premise:
I'm acting like it's yours, because it IS yours.Canceling the quest and not getting the 4points isn’t the same as foregoing the 4 points and never spending them.
Indeed, instead you advocate for not earning them in the easiest way in the game, the thing the game asks you to do first in every session. This is a self-imposed challenge, just as leaving 4 points untouched would be.I never advocated not spending skill points.
For the "permanence" of the choice: The quest points are outside the normal level-up points in the sense that they don't slow down getting your next points, as they don't effect the XP required for the next point. Whatever measure you compare against, day, level, gamestage, trader state; you will always be 4 points short in the playthrough. Once you reach a soft cap for power (such as your main weapon at 5/5), the effect of the difference starts to diminish, but it will still be there until you've filled up your entire skill tree. If the missing points make you play slower, then you might even suffer a further handicap due to that.Saying that canceling the quest is forever losing 4 skillpoints
For the "what patches am I playing"; I'm just waiting for A22. I played a few A21 games early on, but I cba looting another 1000 books. For nerdpoling, it's a minecraft game, the feature exists, you're supposed to be able to "build upwards". If they disable nerdpoling by, say, not being able to place blocks with feet of the ground, I'll happily build two poles, or a pole and a ladder to reach the same goal - if I need the information. I don't really utilize NP to get end loots or any of that, it's not fun, nor even really that powerful - early on the loot in any box sucks, and leveling up is the goal => the Quest Loop = 42.Nerdpoling isn't something I do but that is another of my choices that you would probably label needlessly tedious.
The only thing I was going for a "ridiculous caricature" with, was the "dig some stone and throw it away" -playthru. That was just to point out that not everything you CAN do is MEANT TO BE DONE. The "abandon quest" button is there, but I can't honestly imagine you're MEANT to start using it for a single specific quest. That's just horrible design.No. All of your examples are ridiculous caricatures of what I was saying.
You call two days of searching for civilization a neat change of pace but overall a pointless experience. I call it a nice variation to the game start compared to the tutorial quest + beeline to the trader game loop that happens every single restart in exactly the same way if you go that route.
May. For suitably small values of "may". As in, it doesn't happen in 9/10 starts, they land into the quest loop within the first day. Pointless when it doesn't happen, and when it does, it's just a mild detour to loot a couple kitchens for water. If you're entirely out of POIs, I doubt that's a spawn that TFP would be happy with. Still rather pointless.What makes a two-day slower start where hunger and thirst may become critical all pointless to you?
My narrative...Describing it that way helps your narrative which is why you are making up that story about the purpose of the cancel quest button.
I didn't say it's just an EA oopsie, I said it's an oopsie. And an EA "bug resolver". But if you have some evidence to show that TFP has designed the button FOR dropping the tutorial quest and the associated skill points, well, you can't show it of course, NDA - but do tell them that the design sucks. You're free to sugar-coat it as much as you like, of course.I know for a fact it was not added as simply an EA oopsie button.
Yup, that was the subject for my original claim. The discussion went wild from a simple disagreement on the apparent lack of a design intent.So all of this was because you didn't like me claiming that the 4-points and trader beacon are for new players?
Nope; you're free to call me a noob; that's also what I happen to think of myself. I haven't taken anything personally, I just felt there's something a little off about claiming that the starter quest is designed to be abandoned.You took it personally that I might be calling you a noob since you think the 4-point headstart and trader beacon are delicious?
What aggression?At least we are at the root of the aggression.
Well, then the rewards of the quest are OP, as they give an unfair advantage for veteran players who complete it. Which is why people do it even if they don't want to. Give a 10-stack of water and food bundle for newbies, and veterans might skip it, while the newbs would actually get something they might benefit from. Noobs will die just the same with +4 skill points, it's a rather pointless buff for them. Most of them will waste it on the rounding error that is Pain Tolerance anyway.It's actually what the name of the quest means: You are doing this quest to literally learn the basics of the game ie doing a tutorial.
Oh noes, I'm being called names on the interweps... Report! Ban! ...Noob.
So I just did a health intervention, and forced myself to actually climb into bed for 8 hours, for the first time since I got the game, so if I can do that on a regular basis, many of my issues my resolve themselves.
Going forward with my plans, can anyone point me in the right direction to learn about the books in-game? What I am specifically looking for is a way to plan a weekly play session, where we (my playing group) can run a game and pick one person to be specialized in one critical area.
The goal of these weekly threads will to be to figure out what is needed for running such things. Where should I start posting a weekly thread at, and what would people want to see, so as to make first timers be encouraged to want to either play in one of my games, or even run some such thing on their own?