Most complex games teach people as they go via play tips. Sindome is different in that there are a large number of help files, videos, web pages, etc. that new players "need to" read. That runs counter to how most people pick up new games these days. This creates a lot of friction where people naturally want to learn as they go, but then run into obstacles. eg having a phone but not knowing how to answer it or use it the first time it rings, getting into combat but not knowing how the combat system works, trying to use SIC but not knowing how SIC works, etc.
World of Warcraft comes to mind because they have done an excellent job of putting tool tips on what feels like EVERY SINGLE COMMAND, even the most obvious and mundane. It has been years since I played WoW, but my recollection is that the first time I used any command, it gave me a tool tip.
Doing something similar here in Sindome would be extremely time consuming and more difficult due to the coding involved, the limited time of staff with coding knowledge, and the system itself. But any additional effort that can be devoted there will pay off.
Slither had mentioned setting up help command aliases based on a log of 'failed' help commands. I think that something similar for play tips would be useful.
When I say play tips, I do not mean the types that reward UE. I think having 49 of those is sufficient.
I am thinking about things that are detailed in the help files or the bulletin board, but not completely obvious. The one that comes immediately to mind are SIC brown outs in Red. Those are detailed in the bulletin board files. An example of a 'play tip' for that scenario is that the first time a player tries to communicate on SIC and gets a coverage error, they get a link to the bulletin board that details brown outs. That does a few things. One, it potentially eliminates an xgame query that has already been asked a million times. Two, it eliminates player frustration. Three, it gets a player onto the bulletin boards, maybe for the first time. Four, once the player is on the bulletin boards, they might continue to dig deeper.
Another example might be the first time a character picks up a phone. "You've picked up a phone. Make sure you type 'help phone' and learn how to use it, before you miss an important call."
