New player experience

rangerzfan · December 2018

Decided to create a toon and put it through the new "schooling" process. The old school system had some faults, but this new Sagres thing is ridiculous. Somewhere there has to be some guide or something that can be translated to help. The server is in desperate need of new active players. The seas are still pretty much empty. Sagres is not helping. No new active players = no new revenue. Koei may be at fault for rushing things, but PP will pay with no new revenues because it is harder for new players to learn the basics of this complex game.

YinYangSparty · December 2018

Let the game die, there is a new game that I think some people from uwo may like that is entering beta, its on steam as a sandbox mmo. Go look for it

purplepirate · December 2018

@katanauwo this game won't die, just like you're refusal to let it go. Considering how much time you spend here and how much you keep up with it's updates, i really wouldn't be surprised to find out you secretly still play hiding under a psuedo name. :p

purplepirate · December 2018

*edit post to @ YinYangSparty

Papaya you REALLY need an edit option on these forums!

Spookles · December 2018

I'm going through Sagres myself today and I do agree as to what has been said above, I do think Sagres is a 'good' thing though since it's a whole lot quicker than the old system which is good because of the decrease in attention span people have these days. I remember my first time going through the schools took me like 2 weeks (might've had multiple reasons).

Also idk if anyone remembers this, but back in the old days if you started in Amsterdam as example you had the first school there and then Groningen to finish of with Pisa, but then you didn't get any free ships. God that trip from Groningen to Pisa was terrible... And now they're doing it again with a Barca.... Unless you know what a liner is.

My feedback:
Sagres is good but it needs more direction, like hints on the mini map with a flashing icon like back in the old days. Bring back Instructor Alan! you immediatly knew where to go and who to talk to because Alan was there to hold your hand :'(

Poor Alan is probably sitting on a square somewhere bored out of his mind.

Spookles · December 2018

Oh another option would be that players with a new character are forced to go through the old system but their 2nd character has a choice whether they do Sagres or the old system.

Spookles · December 2018

Oh and a last thing, those liners are based on a timetable but you can't see the time ingame anywhere.

LiquidElectron · December 2018

It's not going to happen, I guess I can stop checking in every so often with faint hope.

quanzao99 · December 2018

I am a Long time player and after roughly a 6 year hiatus I decided to pick it up and give it a try again. After learning it had changed hands a few times, I was happy to discover that Papaya Play had picked up the torch and helped keep it alive. Thank you.

I came back knowing I would have to start new characters and actually looked forward to it. I think that enthusiasm and nostalgia feeling was dead within the first 30 minutes I couldn't talk to anyone, I couldn't figure anything out. The school says their not accepting applications. There is nothing for new players to grasp onto for guidance. I cannot imagine any newcomers sticking around after that experience.

I almost feel its insulting, not so much to myself, but insulting to UWO. Its not the most graphically appealing, and its got its flaws, but its disrespectful and wrong to let it die like this. If nothing is done then there will be no new blood, and this game will most surely fall.

Dwalefoot · December 2018

Yo ho me hearties!

As a completely new player who started only a few days ago, I must first say that I was completely hooked from the start.

However, I am having trouble understanding any of the non-sailing, non-trading mechanics of the game.

I did manage to figure out how to get the Liner from London to Sagres, but had to wait the best part of two hours for it to sail. Once there I chose to get Merchant training from the Sagres School and, at least, I have managed to finish the Beginners Level. I was a bit confused by the fact that the quests seemed to come up in a completely random manner, that they seemed to repeat themselves and the Final Exam quest came up before I had finished the rest. Needless to say, I skipped to it straight away; which, having read the above was possibly a mistake.

Now, I am in Intermediate School and have seen three different quests for the Intermediate Final Exam (strange?) but that is not my main problem. My main problem is I chose a Final Exam quest which asks me to boil an egg using Cooking skill and deliver it somewhere. I have Cooking Skill and some Eggs in the cargo hold, but absolutely no idea how I can initiate the making of the boiled egg.

I know I can use skills at sea, but only the ones that are designated for use at sea, and I can find no other way to use my Cooking, or any other skill, on land.

I have searched the forum and the wiki, for info on how to initiate skills, but I have not found anything that tells me how to do this.

I was hoping that the Sagres School would be a tutorial and take me through the basic mechanics of the game, but I have learnt very little from the school and have had to work everything out for myself.

So I am now stuck not being able to even boil an egg.

I would very much appreciate, and I think other newbies would too, if someone could write a Guide that told us how do use skills, how the jobs work; 'cos I had no idea that Job Cards were a 'thing', or how to get them and... well... basically how the game works.

Because it is very frustrating not knowing how some of the basic mechanics work.

illJill · December 2018

Tried to come back to the game after a "short" 2 year break... I miss the old school system. I hope they make a change to this because after only 30 mins of playing I do not feel like continuing at all. I'll probably try again if/when they make a change to this

purplepirate · December 2018

@everyone you people need to be patient with Koei on this one. With the high volume of negative responses to the new school system, the feedback that we've left here about the problems for new players, papaya will have to pass our info on to koei to address it. I suspect that in the next major patch we'll see changes to the system to make it more user friendly and easier for new players to follow. For now the best thing we can do is help new players out with our own experience to get though the school.

Ferrolio · December 2018

Ahoy Dwalefoot! Welcome to UWO. I'm sure you are finding out, as we all once did, how much there is to this remarkable game. You will, no doubt, run in to a few stumbling blocks but part of the fun is discovering how the various mechanics work and putting it in to practice.

It is regrettable that this new tutorial/school does such a poor job with regards to teaching players some of the basics. But alas, all we can do for now is live with it, while continuing to be vigilant about some of the aforementioned proposals that would ease the process. It is ultimately up to Koei to make any significant changes. I really hope they get the message and understand the severity.

As for your question about the boiled eggs - Those can be made with the 'Simple Recipes' recipe book: Obtainable from Bordeaux/Palma's item shops, as well as the Store Owner in the Lecture hall in Oxford(accessible via carriage from London).

To actually use the recipe once you've acquired it -- you need to click on the 'Use Item' button at the top right hand corner of your screen. It's right under 'Use Skill'. That will open up usable items in your inventory. Then click on the item and hit 'Ok' or just double click the item(the Simple Recipes book in this case). That will then list the various recipes contained within that book. Look for 'Simple Egg Dish', a rank 1 cooking recipe. You will see that it needs Eggs and Salt. and that it requires one of each. Once you have all the necessary ingredients and sufficient vigour - just click on the hammer-looking icons to produce, or produce en masse. Et voila!

As a side note -- you can fill your Custom Slot bars with both skills and items for ease of access.

Job cards are the way you change jobs in this game. Initially you will only get access to a few basic jobs with the cards from school, then later on - some higher level jobs from particular quests themed around those careers. Something to note is that once you change to a job - you will forever have the ability to change to that job again at the guild masters, even without the card. But the cost is something around 20 times more if swapping to it without a card. This can be very expensive for some high end jobs down the line.

As for why you would want to change jobs to begin with...Well first of all -- being in a job that corresponds to the type of activity you are doing - let's say the 'Trade Learner job' while selling goods - will net you 100% trade exp and trade fame from that sale. But you'd only get half the trade exp and fame, were you to sell those same goods, if you did so in an adventure or battle job. It works the same if you are in an adventure job and doing adventure-related things, like making discoveries. You will get the maximum amount of adventure exp and fame if you do so while in an adventure job of any variety, but your trade and battle exp will be halved. And it works that way for maritime(battle) jobs too. So try to do trade quests and activities(including trade school) in a trade job. The same goes for adventure/battle in appropriate jobs for those.

Another key reason why you might want to switch jobs, is because certain jobs have specific skills they favour. You can see this by the little yellow star at the top right hand corner of the skill's icon. Essentially -- favoured skills require half the amount of proficiency to rank up, compared to non-favoured skills. Also -- you can learn favoured skills at the various guild masters right away - thereby bypassing the usual prerequisites to learn the skill.

For example -- If I managed to get one of the early trade exams done from school, I will get a Merchant's Guild Card. This card will let me change to a few of the basic trade jobs. Suppose I want to learn the Casting skill. Normally -- I would have to have r2 Wares trading, which in turn needs r2 Mineral trading, which itself requires r1 Caution. But with that Merchant's Guild Card - I can change to the Chandler job, which has Casting favoured, and learn it from any Merchant GM without needing any of those prerequisites. It also means that producing things via Casting will be more efficient with it favoured, since it it will only take 100 proficiency to rank up from r1->r2 - instead of the 200 proficiency it would usually take if it was non-favoured.

Having said all that - Mineral trader is also basic trade job with Casting favoured - though it has Wares trading, Mineral trading, and Caution all favoured to boot(all useful skills for a caster). So it is probably a better choice for starting out in, if you wanted to take the casting route. I just used Chandler as an example ;)

Another thing to note is that only favoured skills can go beyond base rank 10(boosting them in other ways still works). If I was highly productive(I'm not) and got my Casting all the way to r15 base, but then swapped to a job that didn't have it favoured - like Foods Dealer - my casting rank would then drop to r10. Don't worry though, you don't lose that proficiency. The next time you change to a job that has it favoured again, it will revert to its r15 base, if that is where it was at prior.

So there ya go. A mini-guide on how job cards work. I would have used pictures to illustrate it better, but the last time I tried to post images on here, it failed miserably, despite following the instructions to a tee.

You can use this info, in tandem with Ivyro and the UWO wiki, to plan out what sort of skills you want, and consequently - what jobs to pick up along the way in order to both learn the skills, as well as train them efficiently. Best of luck to you out there on the high seas!

Ginny1 · December 2018

Wow, tried helping another new player that was lost, but first he couldn't find how to get to Sagres, and then finally when he did, he couldn't understand how to move along through the school.

I think I talked him into not giving up, but not sure.

We, existing players, shouldn't have to be trying to talk new players into "hanging on".

The path to success in school, and even how to get to the school, needs to be a lot easier to understand for new players.

New players need a set of instructions, and a road map to follow to get through the new school.

Hopefully KOEI and Papaya will fix this soon.

Ginny1

Spookles · December 2018

Went through the whole system today and documented every step for merchant https://unchartedwaters.wikia.com/wiki/Beginners_Guide/Merchant

It's actually very very easy to do, the only complicated parts are getting to Sagres. Since there are some early steps that need to be done before you can go there and if you skip the dialogue it's very difficult to figure out where to go since the game doesn't tell you. However you can use the Sailor's Guide ingame to check that, just replay the last thing the game told you. It's vague but not impossible.

What can also be complicated for a new player is that you only get told once that there are 3 schools to complete, however you just do Sagres and no more, but there are 3 exams that needs to be done but isn't explained.

Also sailing around the world in a Barca is pure torture, but new players might find it exciting while others boring, depends on the player.

# quick rundown from start to finish

* Take quest at Guild > Go to Shipyard
* Take quest at Guild > Go to Market Keeper
* Do a simple quest where you do an activity, sink ship, do a trade or make an adventure at at church
* Go to Sagres by sailing or using a liner
* Talk with instructor, take a quest
* Do first exam
* Do second exam
* Do 3 quests with a special description that indicates that it leads to the final exam
* Do the final exam

I take back what I said earlier, Sagres is great. It's super fast to get through, which has pros and cons. But I'd take this over the old system any day of the week. I hope it gets alittle more refined, but untill then feel free to share that guide with any new players you might encounter.

carlalex · December 2018

Sure its great for players who just want to get their 199th alt through shcool.

Its definitely NOT great for players who dont know everything in advance.

Spookles · December 2018

Idk, I understand why you say that considering they miss alot of the features in UWO.. However if I would start a new MMORPG and get like loads of dialogue before I can start exploring on my own I'd quit.

Right now you get to the meat directly, you choose maritime? Before the first 10 minutes are over you've done your first fight. Enjoyed the game style? Stay. Did not? Leave.

carlalex · December 2018

Noone has ever been FORCED to join school - if you just want to go directly from character genereation to the port official, jump into your trusty barca and sail out and attack the first NPC ship you see outside the safe zone, you can and could just do that.

And if you dont have the patience for the old school I seriously doubt UWO is a game for you to begin with.

Ginny1 · December 2018

Hey Spookies,

The set of instructions you laid out is what Papaya/KOEI needs to provide.

Maybe with a bit more verbiage to create the "voice" of an old sailor guiding the new sailor along.

Also if the new player could "ask" the "old sailor" for help by picking from a list of typical questions that seem to frustrate all the new players. That way, they would move into the game without getting lost or discouraged.

In addition, new players need to be rewarded frequently for their efforts in the beginning, and the old sailor could continue as a "coach" throughout the game.

The game could allow the new sailor to send a message to the old sailor "in a bottle". The people now answering for game support would receive the "message in a bottle" and respond promptly as though they were the old sailor. That way, players would not need to find/go to the Forum to get answers to simple questions. How many players knew the Forum existed when they first started playing?

The "old sailor" could encourage the new player by asking a question or two when the new player logs in.

Papaya/KOEI can make this game even more "new player friendly" with just a little bit of additional programming.

We are all new customers every time we log on. What is needed is more "Customer Delight".

Ginny1

Destry · December 2018

Hi Spookles, great work on the guide!

I added your guide to the wiki front page, link is currently on the front page itself (right side), and under the Player Guides tab.

I'm looking forward to your adventure and maritime beginner guides. Let me know if you have any wiki-related questions :)

Dwalefoot · December 2018

Hi again. Unfortunately my account was accidentally banned ;) and the original post was delayed for two days.

Many thanks Ferrolio for the detailed post above.

I actually stumbled on the recipe book and figured out that what was needed. That basic piece of info on how to use skills should have been given to me at the start amongst all the Beginners Guide stuff.

Actually, now i have completed the Sagres School I think it is a breeze. The fact that the missions come up randomly and can be repeated was useful. The fact that the Exam missions are present almost from the start allows impatient payers to speed through the School. Personally I did quite a few missions before taking the Exam mission in order to make the most of the experience and rewards you get.

Returning to the original topic New Player Experience, I still feel that there is a lack of documentation regarding the features of the game and how to release them. There are a few things that come up that are meaningless because the feature has not been explained; for instance the Nanban Trading and the Ganador Transport.

Also, I see may players that seem to have two PC ships following them. When and how do I get to do this?

So, I have finished the Merchant School and am now trying out Maritime School. I think that I should have done this the other way around but, that's being a noob.

Oh yes, I am sure that I was informed in some of the in-game text that I could change back to a Job I had had previously without a Job Card/Certificate. However, I am finding this not to be true; every time try to 'Change Jobs' with the Guild Master I am told I have no Job Certificate. Am I doing this wrong?

I ask this, 'cos I like to swap between Food Trader and Jr. Officer, so that I can make the best deals when trading and get the best advantage when in combat.

Spookles · December 2018

Glad you're off to a good start @Dwale :)

As for your first question about the multiple characters; A player can have 1 aide following him in a ship. You can tell it's an aide that's following because their names are green. However you are allowed to have 3 clients running from 1 IP address. You can run the game twice on your computer, you can run a 3rd client with the Windows Sysinternals Desktops tools. But ignore the 'multiboxing' for now ^^ (getting an aide with a ship is a nice start though)

Oh and about the switching jobs, you should only need cards to get new jobs. Once you've had a job you should be able to switch to the job at the right Guild Master for a small fee (depends per job but the lower level ones are about 10k ducats). So to switch to a maritime job you should be at the Maritime Guild Master. It might be that Sagres is a little weird with that, so try in Lisbon or Seville since those are the 2 major ports near Sagres.

Dwalefoot · December 2018

Thanks Spookies. I'm not sure if I can handle three alts just now but I'll bear it in mind for the future.

I have tested changing my jobs and it works in London at least. So, thanks for that as well. Maritime School is going quite well and I have had a couple of Court Rank promotions, as well; which is nice.

I am nearly at Level 20 in Trade, so will soon be able to have an Aide,

Katanauwo · December 2018

Now that Koei is going to release UW Origin, it is best for them to finish the global release, and maybe we will get founder rewards.

I hate to say it, but UWO had its time and the poor quality of the engine and unresolved UX issues are going to hold it back from competing against other games.

What bind you here are just passion and addition.

Passion is remarkable,

Katanauwo · December 2018

But addition is worrying.

Staying in ghost fleet for hours to grind melee is far from fun.

The way you tell whether you are addiction driven or passion driven is to stop playing just for 1 week and then come back. Whatever activitiesyou stop doing are those driven by addiction.

Koei’s new UWO will slowly deprecate PC UWO. I have faith in them that they will address those UX issues in

New player experience

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