Suggestion talk:20120915 Newbie Radio

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Newbie Radio

Timestamp: A Big F'ing Dog 05:18, 13 September 2012 (BST)
Type: Item
Scope: Everyone
Description: UD is not very newbie friendly. It's hard to find steady allies, you die continuously, can barely do anything, and figuring out what to do often involves consulting an outside wiki.

I suggest that all players, both survivor and zombie, start off with one radio in their inventory. This radio would come pre-tuned to one broadcast restricted channel, receiving regular messages from the outside military forces that provide tips on how to play Urban Dead. Although supposedly aimed at survivors, the broadcasts would also contain tips useful for zombie players. Example of messages:

All survivors are encouraged to find a dependable melee weapon to defend themselves if necessary. Axes can be acquired in fire stations located throughout the city.

Alert: Zombies often groan loudly when they encounter the living. Other zombies may hear these groans and swarm your position.

Zombies cannot easily attack buildings by themselves but are very dangerous in groups.

Generators can be installed and fueled in buildings to provide light. This will aid you in finding items but the light may attract the attention of zombies.

Zombies can be brought back to life with syringes from any of the Necrotech buildings hidden across the city.

Closing doors can stop the less intelligent zombies, but some undead are regaining memories of life and opening doors for their hordes. Only barricades can prevent those smarter zombies from entering your safehouse.

Although zombies can be brought back to life our scientists report that many people seem to prefer undeath and commit suicide from tall buildings immediately after revival.

A comprehensive guide to Malton has been assembled by our experts at wiki.urbandead.com. If you still have Internet access and are not being devoured alive we encourage you to use this survival resource.

Existing players would be able to tune their radios to the newbie tips frequency if they want to listen. Whenever anyone switches away from the newbie tips station the game would display a special warning message:

You change your radio's frequency to XX.XX. The radio begins to hiss static. To listen to more survival tips you can switch it back to XX.XX at any time.

A large and rotating supply of tips could answer many of the recurring questions newbies have, without inundating them with too much information all at once.


Discussion (Newbie Radio)

Just as long as you can throw it away, it seems like a good idea.--Shortround }.{ My Contributions 11:20, 13 September 2012 (BST)

Yep, it's just a normal item. If you don't like getting messages you can drop it. --A Big F'ing Dog 14:08, 13 September 2012 (BST)

I like this suggestion, and propose the following 2 refinements:

  1. Make the station the radio is tuned to a regular radio channel in the restricted band, alongside the EMRP frequency.
  2. Make it a regular radio that is pre-tuned to the above frequency.

Nice one! ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾ 16:58, 13 September 2012 (BST)

Definitely in favor, with the adjustments listed above. Bob Moncrief EBDW! 19:15, 13 September 2012 (BST)

Yes: I invited a friend to play UD sometime after I started and it was an interesting conversation topic but it frequently turned into a Q&A session. After a while I got tired of the questions I answered for myself via the wiki, and he got tired of my constant referrals to the wiki for him to do the same. My friend has since stopped playing. Erm :/ --Klexur 19:34, 13 September 2012 (BST)

Great ideas Revenant! I'm going to make it just a pretuned radio everyone starts off with. --A Big F'ing Dog 00:06, 14 September 2012 (BST)

I... am going to steal this... <_< -- ™ & © Amazing, INC. All rights reserved. Replying constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service. 03:19, 15 September 2012 (BST)

It's almost at the point where I am tempted to recruit some suckers and go check out HR again. So, uh. Good work? ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾ 10:47, 15 September 2012 (BST)
While you're at it, I need a PHP programmer, too. Hurf durf! :D -- ™ & © Amazing, INC. All rights reserved. Replying constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service. 22:49, 16 September 2012 (BST)
That almost sounds tempting, almost. --Karekmaps 2.0?! 02:06, 17 September 2012 (BST)
In all honesty, I'm on the verge of closing the game(s) out. Just too little getting done, and too few people playing because of it. Half-finished this, unfixed that, etc. etc. etc. Only so much I can do with "copy/paste/edit = new feature". :D -- ™ & © Amazing, INC. All rights reserved. Replying constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service. 03:43, 17 September 2012 (BST)
That's a shame. Haven't had a chance to play your game yet, but it seems pretty cool from what I've read on its wiki. Would you give up working on this kind of game then, or start working on another one? --A Big F'ing Dog 07:58, 18 September 2012 (BST)
It's not a course of action I want to take, but after a few years one has to wonder if something like this should actually exist because ten people are on it. I love the ten folks playing (probably) but yeah. It's a bit much for that few. There are old easter eggs and hidden features nobody's really discovered, etc. because the player base is so low. I wouldn't focus on a new game, would probably just move on. I'm sure the next game would suffer the same fate because I'm not a legit PHP programmer. I just know my way around existing code and can figure stuff out to add and edit things. I have to rely on a cohort who can code, which opens a bunch of cans of a bunch of worms. Features I didn't want or know about before they're put in, problems that go unfixed because I'm the only one who thinks it's important, and so on. Basically what I'm bitching toward is, yeah, I'd probably just move on to something else. Heh. -- ™ & © Amazing, INC. All rights reserved. Replying constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service. 18:05, 18 September 2012 (BST)

This is a very nice alternative to changing game mechanics or buffing new players. -- †  talk ? f.u. 14:51, 15 September 2012 (BST)