I think that Grand Central Station, whilst impressive, is overwhelming for new players. So is the whole of Central city, to be honest. So perhaps streamline things a bit. There's the new player kit dispenser in Central, but I didn't find that straight away. Could that be moved into the Spawn area? Also the stuff dispensed from that kit is better than the stuff given in /tutorial, so if the /tutorial stuff was upgraded then perhaps the kit dispenser wouldn't be needed.

Add a few things to the new player kit perhaps. Food was hard to come by in the first few days as everywhere is so built up, so perhaps give them some. Also an in-game guidebook containing basic things they'll want to know like the unique commands, where they can build, how to use Central Station, the fact that the community centre exists, how to use the map, etc.

Getting to Wild quickly is a problem, as the overground rail is slow and the nether rail isn't good if you don't know where you want to go. It's why I ended up so close to Central. I was on the rail for ages, and finally found some empty space so jumped off. Not allowing TP is generally good, but how about a one-off for new players? You could add a key item to the new player kit which allows them to enter a 'wild access' room with TPs to a choice of biomes. Again, they should access this room without needing to leave Spawn.

Also, the tutorial video (episode 0.1) that's on some of the server list sites is out of date. It doesn't mention /tutorial and it does mention things like /maon instead of /choptree on. Led to a tiny amount of confusion when I arrived. Could be worth an update, and to be made more prominent.

Registration seems to flumux some people. A very short video explaining the process would be easier than trying to direct people through chat.

EDIT: OK, was encouraged to go through the tutorial. Seems to cover a lot of things well, though I was surprised not to see coverage of things like replanting, a more extensive list of what constitutes griefing (though the room at the end does help make the point), or any direct mention of not using cheat mods. It also seems as though the auto-cart-breaker may set up expectations that auto-cart-breakers are everywhere, when people need to know they need to break the cart themselves... and people not doing that has been an issue lately.

As for things to present to newly-registered players beyond the tutorial, I did actually have a book drafted up shortly before I took my several-weeks break that I figured could serve as at least a model for something that could be put on a lectern on the spawn platform in Central. EDIT: Seems surprisingly little of the book is redundant with the tutorial!

Central is, as has been discussed in in-game chat, incredibly easy to get lost in -- and, I would add, shiny enough and large enough to give the impression that it is the server to someone who doesn't know better. Grand Central doesn't even have signs on it identifying it, let alone pointing out that it's the best starting point for finding a home.

The fact that Central's community center even exists is hard to discover. It took me a while to even memorize where it is; it would take a lot of dumb luck for new people to stumble across it, given Central's bewildering layout. It's not very clear where the farms are either. There's a lot in Central to help people prepare to set out, but it's not obvious that they ought to find it in the first place, let alone how to. As near as I can tell, people used to other servers are used to being handed a complete starting kit, not having to assemble one from resources at spawn.

One thing I noticed during the banner month is that a lot of people, if left to wander on their own, ended up in Minetropolis and other nearby protected areas. Needless to say, that doesn't really help them find a home; it may also give the impression that the server is more restrictive and more "used-up" than it actually is. I'm not sure how best to clarify that it's taken but that this is non-indicative without making people think the entire south is off limits, though.

Some of the bigger "wild" areas, like the half-continent north of Ender Station, are particularly hard to access. Perhaps add more explicit connections to those. Heck, I'd be willing to throw together portals at places I think could use them for that purpose.

The maps' existence are less than obvious, as has been stated by others. Furthermore, their importance doesn't seem to strike some players even when we tell them about them. On top of that, it's hard to tell much from Laurasia's map with its default settings; IMO, Laurasia's map should really show portals by default. It's hard to plot a reasonably short course to a destination without that, and I've found myself having to talk people through how to turn it on many times because of that.

A number of people have asked about "how to join a town". That we don't have a ready answer for that question may bewilder and discourage some of them.

Cimmeria is, quite frankly, griefer city. The registered servers being at all different is apparently not self-evident to new players, and this seems to make some of them nervous, particularly if staff seems indifferent to their fears. No idea how to address this one, alas.

EDIT: Oh, one other thing occurs to me: people seem to expect to be able to set their spawn from day 1. We tell them to use a bed, but it's not always easy to assemble a bed early on. Maybe make shears a little easier to come by early on, perhaps by adding a pair to the iron gear dispenser's set and not just the tutorial.

Edited by Pteryx on September 2, 2019 at 23:04:54

Edited by Pteryx on September 2, 2019 at 23:41:17

I have a few suggestions and I would like to give you a comprehensive review of my experience in hopes of helping.

First off as a whole I love the server and the environment crafted by the team. The initial spawn into the pre-world is much like any other server there isn't much to say about that as it seems intuitive with little to say. However, upon going any of the survival worlds the feeling is confusion and frustration as I think you look at it through the perspective of people who know every corner of the map.
Yes, there are rails but to where? First getting into the server you don't have the live map and getting on a rail only to spend 5 minutes getting to a place you can't even build is frustrating enuff to want to quit. The moment you walk out of that first spawn square there are no signs to direct you out of the maze that is central or to the "community center" or "special transports". I didn't know what moose-mart was or that it existed for several days and finding Creeper Citidel was like trying to find a needle in a haystack as it's never explained that I'm looking for a tiny teleportation platform and not a "Citidel". As I was writing this I stopped to check out the tutorial.
That being said my favorite things about the server has to be Zero resets, science and The amazingly attentive and friendly staff.


(1) either a differently colored path to the "wild" or signs leading out to the "wild". Specifically Cimmeria.

(2) Laurasia: in the spawn area it would be great to have something explaining Moose-mart

(3) Laurasia: There is a couple of areas talked about on the signs "community center" but I didn't know what I was looking for.

(4) As previously mentioned minecarting to a location I can't build at is simply frustrating. So I suggest in this instance a one time teleport either north, south, west or east into the wild.

(5) On a few other servers, I have played one of the things I enjoyed the most was Heads specifically heads made to look like other foods like apples, pizza, and drinks, etc. it adds a lot to builds and i don't think this would stray too much from vanilla

(6) Lastly, I suggest some sort of /Science or /challenges to get a list of information on what's available and then something like /LostWoods to get a short introduction on what to expect and maybe how to find it. there are many areas such as the horsemen that I still have zero clue about how to get to them or there danger lvl in comparison to other science.


Tutorial Suggestions

(1) It would be nice to work in moose-mart at some point and what the teleportation platform that leads to creeper citadel looks like.

(2) The 7th room talks about /registration but I think it would be prudent to put up a sign that explains how to add your MC username and to re-log as these are the 2 things that I see staff repeat 5 times minimum a day.

I hope this is helpful and not too critical.

The registration process could be a little more "user friendly" for new players that arent familiar with forums! I found that new players often were confused as to how to complete the registration process without assistance! Besides that great work! ❤

I think the registration process is probably fine as-is. I seriously doubt the kind of people who say “registration is too hard” are the kind who would stick around.

Central is a bit crowded, but that’s a good way to show off the server’s age, so it’s not really a bad thing. I think that as long as people know where the farms are (so they can get some food for the road), they should be fine finding a place in the wilderness to build. Maybe a marked path of some kind (even if it’s just signs) to the farms might be helpful, if it isn’t already obvious.

Maybe a few pre-defined settlements could be made and linked to via nether rails? Just a few houses and farms. Then again, people can do the same along the transcontinental.

It belatedly occurs to me that there's a relevant piece of tabletop RPG wisdom that could be applied here: the Three Clue Rule. Its most basic formulation is, "For every conclusion that you want your players to draw, include at least three clues." It was conceived of as a means of making mystery scenarios more playable, but given how many conclusions new players are supposed to draw about how to even begin around here and how few seem to draw them all, it also seems applicable here.

I note that an experience I had in Kenorland last night really struck me. A random visitor showed up and burrowed through the pyramid atop my base in order to enter it -- not as an attack, but as a clueless attempt to path to me. She was honestly sorry about having damaged something of mine and even attempted (ineptly) to fix it. She was very polite from beginning to end, yet thought nothing of raiding Twixxi's base just because it was there. Ultimately, she got bored of the randomizer, not really seeing the appeal, and left, ceding her stuff to me.

I could not help but think that on the one hand, she's got her heart enough in the right place that I could see enjoying her company and see her in turn theoretically enjoying the likes of Creeper's Lab, but on the other hand, the kind of retraining it would take to explain a no-griefing, no-raiding, build-oriented server to someone so unquestioningly steeped in adversarial norms and have them behave accordingly would be immense. I'm pretty sure this was an innocent person who did what she did because that's just "what's done" in Minecraft. It speaks to the extreme level of disconnect between how people perceive what Minecraft "is" and what we on Creeper's Lab do. It also makes me wonder how many griefers we've banned who were clueless instead of malicious.

On that note, as was discussed in chat recently, I feel Kenorland is far too "off-brand" to make sense to have open to visitors. We're fighting an uphill battle against widespread preconceptions of multiplayer Minecraft as a competitive, cutthroat sort of game; Kenorland does not help disabuse people of the notion that this is also the focus of Creeper's Lab! It's also ineffective as a recruiting tool, and it might not be good if it were...

In general, it seems like first-time joiners tend to make a beeline for Kenorland (which is the shortest walk and has the fewest options) or the Games section (which, well, has "game" in the name) at least as often as the Survival section, when the latter is the server's core experience. Sometimes, it seems like they haven't even noticed where the Survival section is. It thus feels like something should be done to make the Survival section "shinier". My thought is literal chaser lights that flow from the central platform to the Survival section!

Following up on the "how to join a town" recurring question, I've noticed more than a few young-seeming players seem to want to team up with someone and build from the ground up together with them. Some don't even seem to realize that they're talking to established players who don't need any help themselves! In general, it seems like many of those who don't expect multiplayer Minecraft to be about PvP and raiding, instead expect multiplayer Minecraft to involve being teamed up with one or more peers... even when they happen to be the only new player around at the time. (Admittedly, multiplayer Minecraft as lots of people spread across a single world all doing their own things, and occasionally sharing resources or showing off their builds, isn't exactly the most intuitive conception of multiplayer...)

I have to say, I absolutely love all the new directional signage in Central! I think it's a fantastic improvement.


Theoretically, the video could just have music playing and the information given in text format? I certainly don't like putting my voice online either, tbh.


Would it be worth doing a little community project to get some builds up in and around Griefer City?

I second this. I feel like Kenor doesn't give new players an accurate impression of what we are, and doesn't give us an accurate impression of them either. More often than not it leads to frustration - either cos they're locked out for a week after being shot by a skeleton at spawn, or cos digging up dirt gives them enchanted books.

Honestly, I doubt people disinclined to read will suddenly read just because it's a video. Someone needs to speak in it... though I don't think I'm the best choice either. Speaking has never been my forte.

For all Central's improvements, I feel like the Community Center is still terribly innocuous -- at a glance from a distance, just another stone brick building. Maybe abuse single-letter banner designs, like putting "KIT" on top of the kit-dispensing machine and "COMMUNITY" below the creeper faces and above the windows on the Community Center itself? Also, while there are signs explaining the transportation options at the entrance to Grand Central coming from the spawn platform, no such signs exist from the Community Center direction. Also, don't forget lecterns with one-page books are a viable option! People do read the one at Cimmeria spawn, after all.

Edited by Pteryx on November 7, 2019 at 2:32:04

I just happened to be going through the lobby when someone joined, and they were facing the Challenge section when they spawned. So might be worth testing if this is still the case?

I wonder if it could be worth (if technically feasible) making them start in Cimmeria, rather than the Lobby. Consider their options when they're in the lobby:
* Affiliate section - Trusted only
* Challenge section - Registered only
* Games / TNT Tag - Under Construction
* Games / PVP - Requires 2 players, not representative of CL
* Games / World 8 - Just kills them, not a great welcome.
* Games / Parkour - A fun diversion, but not representative of CL.
* Survival / Rodinia - Registered only
* Survival / Gond - Registered only
* Survival / Laurasia - Accessible, but causes frustration cos they can't do anything and therefore often get stuck
* Survival / Cimmeria - The only realistic option for them

I've seen people join the server and leave again before they even leave the lobby. Why not skip this step completely, and pop them straight in Cimmeria with a nice greeting suggesting they /tutorial?

I think this is a great fix! People seem to be finding survival much easier now.


That's a very valid point. Is that something we could maybe try to fix? I wonder if we launched a community project, perhaps even contest, to get some nice builds near Cimmeria spawn and perhaps together we could build up something a little more impressive. As it stands, Cimmeria often is the first impression of our survival servers that players get, so getting that right could be really good for retention in those first few minutes.

EDIT: In fact, given we regularly get players wanting 'a city to join', would it also be worth laying out some plots there? Also, there are a *lot* of mobs spawning right outside the spawn room. Is it worth extending the mobded perimeter so players aren't immediately confronted with a horde?

I was also wondering last night if it'd be worth having a /tutorial button (or even something fancy using end gateways) at Cimmeria spawn, rather than just a sign. People are lazy XD


I think it might be worth trying this! As I said above, the rest of the lobby isn't hugely relevant to new players. So putting them right in the correct place seems like a good idea.


This page looks much better to me

Long shot, but I assume there's no way we can add a field to the forum registration page asking for their Minecraft username that would automatically populate the My Networks section? It's that last step that always seems to catch people out.

Edited by Twixxi on December 9, 2019 at 18:00:13

Edited by Twixxi on December 10, 2019 at 11:42:54

Something that strikes me as the month wears on is that the number one thing that seems to blindside people who actually get through the registration process is our transportation methods. People who get as far as registering tend to catch on to "no griefing" easily enough, but "no tp" seems alien. The typical procedure seems to go something like this:

• Player successfully registers
  
• Player hops (back) onto Laurasia
  
• Player asks a tp-related question
  
• Player is informed tp is not a thing on our server, is pointed at /maps and the Nether rails, and is informed the longest overworld rail is 90 minutes long
  
• The concept of Nether rails goes in one ear and out the other, and it may as well be as if no one mentioned it
  
• The idea of using the live maps occasionally registers, but for unknown reasons they quickly throw up their hands and decide to "just walk"
  
• Player inspects about 1/4 of the area within 1000 blocks of spawn and finds no free space
  
• Player logs out and never returns
  ** Alternately, player rides about 1500 blocks on an overworld rail, then complains it's taking forever
  ** Player is told the Nether rails are faster, once again in vain
  ** Player logs out and never returns
  

It makes me wonder if "no tp" is so unique that it needs to be elevated to the level of being a primary part of the server's pitch, up there with "no griefing" and "build-oriented survival" -- or, for that matter, if there's some other way we could help people be clearer on what they're getting into. Many people must feel frustrated or cheated by only learning after they join up that we have no tp.

Edited by Pteryx on December 14, 2019 at 7:34:18

EDIT: Thinking on one aspect of this post further, I do wonder if the presentation of the maps might be an obstacle to some players. Laurasia's map, for example, defaults to being zoomed in on Central, which may give the impression that Central is the entirety of Laurasia. The use of green for protected areas may be confusing to new players, as they may perceive it as where you're allowed to build instead of where you're not allowed to build (and at least a few explicitly have before); yellow might be clearer. The significance of the Nether rail network might be more obvious if portals were shown on the map by default.

Edited by Pteryx on December 17, 2019 at 2:19:44

Suggestion:
The tutorial should contain information about what makes this server interesting and unique like science items & events.