New Player On-boarding Experience

[Koyokaze]

So I just started playing the game at the request of Nik, who had joined my Shinobi Striker discord and recommended it. I made my ninja, joined the Leaf, played through the Academy section and am now at the "Reach Level 10" quest, in order to take the test to become a genin. I have some gripes with this section, though. 

Number 1, the Academy section works well, I think it gives a great overview of what's available in the game. However, releasing you into the village and telling you to hit Level 10 with no guidance(and no access to missions, besides the Hide and Seek quest in the park) really hinders the new experience. The best I can do is talk to the gate guard and ask him for good places to train, in which he tells me the training ground. When you arrive at the training ground there is nothing you can do there, the event interactable(Bell Test) doesn't even respond to my interactions and doesn't give me an error/fail message. I could go and kill some slugs slightly farther down the path, but that is painfully slow, too slow for such a low level. It took me to be informed by Nik that Spiders(and where to even find them) are a better farming alternative at this level range. It's well and good that veteran knowledge exists and helps, but for the low level experience(Especially at level 6) there needs to be more direction until players can accept actual missions to earn meaningful amounts of experience and learn more about the outside map. 

Number 2, The Exploration mission texts could use some correction or editing. There are 2 locations on the Konoha map which are completely unmarked, being the Swords Shop and the Temple. The Temple at least has *some* physical signage up its path in the corner of the map telling you where to go, but the swords shop has nothing. I wouldn't bring this up if the quests themselves didn't actively suggest that you use the map to find these places. Normally, I wouldn't mind looking around for places but the quest text made it confusing, leading me to believe it was supposed to be on the map while not actually being there, and while also not having any utilities like an NPC to point out locations in the village with descriptors. 

I'm quite patient when it comes to learning games with an interesting in-game lore and developers who do it for fun because it is such a unique experience. However I think if Nin-Online would like to retain a more active player base it should really try and make the New Player Experience more interesting and enticing for the player. I can say that it was simply not fun to realize that there was almost no utility to help me level up besides grinding low-exp yielding enemies outside the village before I can even take the test to become a genin. I want to be clear though, I'm not hating on the game at all, I wish it every success. It's just really hard to stay interested when the beginning of the game( the game itself, not the players) isn't welcoming to a starter ninja. 

If I had to give a suggestion as to what I would recommend to improve the experience(aside from improving the village map), I would personally recommend keeping the tutorial inside of the Academy building and adding an additional quest or two that had you put what you learned into practice, such as another room where you could use your academy shuriken, body flicker technique, and taijutsu to beat up a few clones as your small "ending" exam to become a genin, and maybe even a written exam(aka some simple but relevant multiple choice questions) with like 5-10 questions about masteries and what stats influence what. That way it helps reinforce the things you just learned. Right after being released, you could do the village exploration quests to see where everything is, which would land you at level 10 after you finish all of them. Then you could select your first mastery, and begin doing missions like normal and meeting other people. Personally, I think that would land you at a basic level of knowledge where you're not limited in what you can do and gives you the freedom to explore and find out what else is out there. 

[Tormentaa]

Ello sexi, welcom to NinOnline btw!

Eventually you'll take a written Exam to get promoted to Genin, meanwhile if you need help with locations or any kind of help, you can ask other players around, they'll surely give you a hand

Hoping to see you out there on the Danger Zones SoonTM!

[Koyokaze]

12 minutes ago, Tormentaa said:

Ello sexi, welcom to NinOnline btw!

Eventually you'll take a written Exam to get promoted to Genin, meanwhile if you need help with locations or any kind of help, you can ask other players around, they'll surely give you a hand

Hoping to see you out there on the Danger Zones SoonTM!

I appreciate the encouragement! I mainly meant this post to be suggestions to improve the beginning of the game. It shouldn't have to rely on the community to make Level 6 gameplay unconfusing, especially since this is the point of the game where most people will decide if they would like to keep playing or not. I appreciate your recommendations to help me out all the same though! 

Edit: I realize now there is an Ideas thread where this post could have gone. While I'm not sure if posts can be migrated by staff, it would be appreciated if they can do so here. If not I think this generally fits both categories. 

Edited December 31, 2022 by Koyokaze

[Spider Man]

Nik here! Forgive me, I'd comment on my main but a salty former gm took offense to a greta thunburg meme. I'm restricted from posting forever on that account, but since I PAY FOR MY OPINION I WON'T STAY SILENCED. (We can have that conversation later)

@Avan is the current Hokage. I do not currently play in the Leaf Village however I support Avan. I made sure I pm'd as many Leaf Ninja as possible to make sure that your experience on Nin Online from here on out goes as smooth as possible. Thank you very much for posting your opinion as it is very valuable since you're a new player. 

Welcome to Nin Online and thank you so much for giving it a shot. I'm hoping the other guys in your discord give it a shot as well and you have an amazing time as I have spent the last 7 years playing this game and I can honestly say the only thing I regret is not spam killing certain individuals when I was too kind.

@Light@Shissei@Erox

Edited January 1, 2023 by Erox
You've mistaken a Game Master for an Admin

[Cosbo]

Sadly i agree 100%, but erox (adm) is working on it, you can expect an arc connected to the academy ( or something related ) in the close future.
 

 

[Koyokaze]

45 minutes ago, Cosbo said:

Sadly i agree 100%, but erox (adm) is working on it, you can expect an arc connected to the academy ( or something related ) in the close future.
 

 

Oh great! At least they are working on it, I just thought I'd put in my 2 cents. Thanks for linking the other posts

[Sodium11Na]

Not to mention how painful it is that anyone can kill you when youre low level and there is absolutely nothing that you as the player can do about it, I have created 8 or so accounts so far and the biggest issues I've encountered before lvl 10 when dailies and jutsu are available to the player is that players keep going to these low lvl areas and kill me. Maybe you could add a feature that protects the lower levels like there not being any reward, bounty or otherwise from killing those under level 10.