Class Trial Simulator

[kaynide]

I've always said that I think they should re-work skill progression entirely. If I sound like a broken record, i apologize!

For me:
1) By first dungeon (so level 16ish) your basic 1v1 and AoE rotations should be available. For examples: PLD, Halone and the 2 step AOE; Samurai the Gekko combo and Mangetsu Combo
2) By 50, you have all skills, in full.
3) Post 50, the skill bar related stuff. Again for PLD we're talking things like shelltron or the proc-abilities; for Sam, the Kenki gauge stuff

With new expansions I would rather they not add new abilities, but maybe expand upon current ones (lower the cooldown time, make more interesting choices with resources or just make the entire combat speed faster by reducing recast times.)

THEN, for the OP's original idea, YES! There should be some kind of area where you can practice avoiding mechanics or your rotation in a "live fire" situation...but it really irks me when they re-do the whole rotation unnaturally.

..like Samurai feels pretty smooth from 1 to 80; what you do at 50 isn't that different from 80. Blackmage however you have to re-learn your rotation at several intervals as it becomes wildly different depending on what you have access to.

[Derio]

Hopefully they just expand PotD to lvl 80/90.

I agree skill progression needs a major rework.

The problem is for the OP's idea to work they would have to create an instance zone, then there is the issue of handling the problem if the player does not have the job unlocked but would like to try it. So a new system would need to be created entirely. From a new player perspective it sounds great, from an existing player perspective many would just say they should have expanded PotD.

If they do add it. They should add it to hall of novice. The instance is already there and it could be used a deeper learning opportunity for new players.

[DPZ2]

So, which patch do you want the dungeon instance to be missing in 7.0 because of the hours of programming this suggestion will take? 6.0 is pretty much set in stone at this point, content-wise.

[Jojoya]

So, which patch do you want the dungeon instance to be missing in 7.0 because of the hours of programming this suggestion will take? 6.0 is pretty much set in stone at this point, content-wise.

Shouldn't take much programming at all. This could easily be incorporated into Hall of the Novice.

Create a tutorial for job testing. Have the Master of Arms act as a vendor selling Weathered Weapons and fake Soul Crystals that will be removed from inventory when the tutorial ends so the player can switch between the jobs they want to test. Set up a hotbar system that temporarily replaces the player's normal hotbars while in the tutorial (similar to what happens when we're at the Wolves' Den). Put out the striking dummies used in one of the tanking tutorials. Add in a healing dummy and a mammet that tosses an occasional AoE for the player to dodge.

Done.

There's no new art assets that need to created, no complicated combat to program. The player gets to see what the full toolkit is like without committing to the job in advance. If they like it, they can then go do the normal unlock quest to start the leveling process.

If the game code has a problem giving a character temporary access to a job they haven't yet unlocked, then access to the tutorial could be set up through character selection using a stock character with every job unlocked. Player chooses this stock character (allow race/gender options for animation purposes but no other customization to simply things) and it places the character directly into the Hall of the Novice tutorial. Exit the tutorial? Back to character selection.

[DPZ2]

Shouldn't take much programming at all. This could easily be incorporated into Hall of the Novice.

Bro, do you even code?

Better still, have you ever had to plan out a major change in software to accommodate a new feature in any other kind of software, let alone a game?

It takes time for development, money to pay for that time, testing, money to pay for that testing, time for translation of every scenario that needs to be involved, money to pay for that time, time for project management to ensure the change is on time and on budget, money to pay for that project management, the list goes on and on.

This feature would have to be rebuilt every expansion to accommodate the "full toolkit".
Battle tactics would have to be written, since not all jobs are DPS. At least three scenarios would have to be created, since Tank, Healer and DPS roles would have to be written.

It's way more complicated than waving hands over a paper copy of the code and chanting "And then ... a Miracle happens!"

That's why I asked which patch's dungeon do you want to skip in order to code this new feature into 7.0 ? Because it's going to take time. And money.

There really isn't an MMORPG out there that does this right now. Don't point to WoW's "try it out for free", as the only tutorial you get is tightly controlled [Disc priest only, really?] with minimal "toolkit" before it dumps you in-game. {Bonafides: I played that game for 10 years, have both Alliance and Horde characters featuring every race and every class up to Max Level prior to BFA (when I bowed out), and found their Instant Max Level trials to be worthless}

[Vipes]

I call Monokuma.

[StriderShinryu]

Given that bits and pieces for this sort of system already exist in the Squadron/Companion system, the PotD/HoH system and the Hall of the Novice system, I'm sure there would be a way to do this without really adding anything new. Not to say it would necessarily be simple or easy, but there is an evident pathway. At the absolute very least, they should incorporate job action trailers into the game. While watching a video isn't anywhere near as good as going hands on with a class at least it would give you some sort of idea on how a job plays/is meant to be played. (and yes you can always look on Youtube or where ever for this sort of thing but I firmly believe you should never have to go outside of the game to some sort of 3rd party resource just to learn basics on how the game plays because as soon as you add that extra step you're creating a distance that many players will not want to travel)

[Jojoya]

Bro, do you even code?

Better still, have you ever had to plan out a major change in software to accommodate a new feature in any other kind of software, let alone a game?

It takes time for development, money to pay for that time, testing, money to pay for that testing, time for translation of every scenario that needs to be involved, money to pay for that time, time for project management to ensure the change is on time and on budget, money to pay for that project management, the list goes on and on.

This feature would have to be rebuilt every expansion to accommodate the "full toolkit".
Battle tactics would have to be written, since not all jobs are DPS. At least three scenarios would have to be created, since Tank, Healer and DPS roles would have to be written.

It's way more complicated than waving hands over a paper copy of the code and chanting "And then ... a Miracle happens!"

That's why I asked which patch's dungeon do you want to skip in order to code this new feature into 7.0 ? Because it's going to take time. And money.

There really isn't an MMORPG out there that does this right now. Don't point to WoW's "try it out for free", as the only tutorial you get is tightly controlled [Disc priest only, really?] with minimal "toolkit" before it dumps you in-game. {Bonafides: I played that game for 10 years, have both Alliance and Horde characters featuring every race and every class up to Max Level prior to BFA (when I bowed out), and found their Instant Max Level trials to be worthless}

I understand it takes development time.

Most of what they would need to do it is already part of the game. They do not have to create all of it from scratch, only the parts that would be new to the tutorial.

That's significantly less time than it takes to create an entire new dungeon from scratch. which was the comparison being used.

WoW's try it for free is a mess because they put it into a complicated combat scenario. I'm not suggesting that. I'm suggesting they put a striking dummy into an arena for the player to whack at (or heal) so they get the chance to see and experiment with the level cap toolkit, not defeat some "epic" encounter 5 minutes after they pick up a class.

[Nethereal]

I understand it takes development time.

Most of what they would need to do it is already part of the game. They do not have to create all of it from scratch, only the parts that would be new to the tutorial.

That's significantly less time than it takes to create an entire new dungeon from scratch. which was the comparison being used.

WoW's try it for free is a mess because they put it into a complicated combat scenario. I'm not suggesting that. I'm suggesting they put a striking dummy into an arena for the player to whack at (or heal) so they get the chance to see and experiment with the level cap toolkit, not defeat some "epic" encounter 5 minutes after they pick up a class.

Eh it might take more depending on how spaghettis the code they're dealing with. Even if it doesn't take longer than an entire new dungeon it will eventually with every expansion unless they code it properly so it is as simple as copy and paste, g2g.

Also using "dungeons" as a comparison isn't great considering how streamlined and dog shit they are now in comparison to ARR dungeons. And they're trying to streamline them even more.

The simplest way to do it is probably to create a character preset of every class the same way they do rpg instances. And simply update the skills every expansion.