New Player System needs an update.

[Harley]

Introduction.

I'd like to suggest an update to the New Player system, along with the quiz. Currently, it is too easy to join ECRP as a New Player, and this has lead to too many players joining ECRP not knowing a thing about RP.

I have a lot of experience on pretty much every side of RP that ECRP has to offer, from Crim, to PD, to MD, I've experienced it all, and in every scenario; I can name dozens of times that I have interacted with a New Player who has no idea how to RP, or what any commands are. For example MD encounter almost daily someone who doesn't know how to respond to RP with /do. When I was a medic I would turn up to someone injured on the ground, and when RPing with them I'd either get no response at all in RP, or I would get /do injuries. I believe that the New Player system should be updated to hold the hands of New Players, to teach them how to Roleplay.

1. The Quiz

Firstly, I'd like to recommend that the quiz when a player first joins the server gets updated. The questions are outdated and have all been archived by people online, or friends of New Players, making it very easy for New Players to get their friends to complete their quiz for them. This leads to New Players being confused when they actually enter the server, not knowing the rules, and ruining countless of RP opportunities because of their ignorance.
An updated quiz with new questions, and more situational questions should help get a better idea of what that player thinks what behaviour is acceptable and what is not, and will help in reducing the number of quizes that are not passed genuinely.
 

2. Tutorial

I believe a tutorial is a great way to keep New Players busy while their application is reviewed, as well as assisting New Players seamlessly be integrated into our community with the knowledge and experience they need to have great Roleplay experiences.
Picture this: You're brand new to ECRP. You join the server from the RAGE browser and are greeted with the quiz, this time with the new UI and updated questions.
After you've answered the quiz, the server quotes that the review process can take 24 hours, and should explain what the next steps are while their application is reviewed. The server will then present the player with the Character Creation screen, with a script in the background timing how long they spend on this screen.

After the player has completed creating their character, they are transported into a different dimension to the normal server, and are greeted with the Tutorial.
A landing message greets the player to ECRP and actually teaches the player about ECRP and how to Roleplay, as this may be their first ever RP experience in GTA, as it was for me. For example "Hello! Welcome to the Eclipse Roleplay tutorial. Today you'll learn the basics of Roleplay, and how you should behave interacting with other players. You'll be placed in a few scenarios, and we'll explain how a situation like this may go, and how you can Roleplay in these scenarios. You'll also learn the basics of Eclipse Roleplay, and what you can do to get started!"

First Tutorial: /Me & /Do

This tutorial would be simple. It would spawn the player in an empty parking lot, maybe the DMV for example, and the server would communicate to the player in the chat explaining what a /me is and a scenario it should be used in. It would then tell the player to give it a shot. The scipt would then wait to read a /me command in the chat, and then congratulate them on correctly using a /me. It would then do the same with /do.

After this, it would then spawn them in a vehicle that is locked in place, with a police cruiser behind them, and a Police NPC next to their window. The server would then explain in a dialogue box on their screen that this is a situation where both /me's and /do's would be used in a common RP interaction, and would then tell the player to go ahead with the RP.

The NPC would then say something like "Can I see your drivers license please" and then the server would wait for a /me command, to give the player a chance to use a /me in a real scenario. I doubt it's possible to script looking for a specific topic in the /me, but just practice using /me and the prompt to give the officer a license should give the player enough direction that they should RP "/me shows the officer his license".

The server should then step in and again explain that next would be a /do, to ask if the officer looks at the license. The server would again then wait for a /do command, to give the player experience using /do.
"Now that you've RP'd showing the officer your license, the next step is to let the Officer give their input into the RP by asking them how they would react to you showing your license using /do. For example: /do would the officer take the license?". The NPC would then return a /do for the Officer. For example: "/do The officer would take the license, reviewing it, then handing it back"

After the player has done this /me and /do, the server would then step in again and explain how the /license script works. It should explain that when they really start their RP experience, they will not have a drivers license, and they should go to the DMV to get it when they start their journey in ECRP, but in this scenario, they have one.

For example:
"Now that you've Roleplayed showing the officer your license, you can use the script command /license [ID] to show the officer your license. This will show the officer what licenses you currently have, along with your name. We've given you a drivers license for this example, but when you really start your journey in Eclipse Roleplay, you will not start with one, and you must go to the DMV if you wish to get one."

The server would then wait for the player to enter the /license command, with the correct ID shown above the NPC's head. Maybe the dialogue box shown above should also explain what an ID is, and that you can see a player's ID above their head. Maybe the NPC should also have an ID shown above their head, something that isn't possible a player can get, so maybe a 4 digit ID?

 

The server can then after completing this RP interaction teleport the player to another tutorial for /do's, this time they are injured and a medic is tending to their injuries. Each time a new situation is presented to the New Player, a dialogue box should pop up explaining what situation they are in and how RP is important in this scenario. It should explain that /do can also be used to state facts, like your injuries.

Once the player closes that dialogue box, the Medic NPC should return a /me command of the Medic tending to the players injuries, followed by a "/do What injuries would the medic find?"

The server would then return a message in the chat saying something like "Now it's your turn to reply to the Medic's RP in /do explaining what injuries your character might have. For example A Broken Leg"

The server would then wait for the /do command to be used, and then let the Medic NPC continue their Medical RP, and at the end returning with another "/do Would he be able to do so?" The server then explaining how to respond to this too.

I think I've explained the Tutorial enough to get a good idea of how I imagine this would turn out, so I'll leave it there.

I see this tutorial being used for more than just explaining how to /me and /do however, I see it being used to show the player the basics of ECRP, where the bank is, how the phone works, basic useful commands, where the DMV is, etc. Things that New Players might need to know to prevent them being lost, confused or arrested for simply just not knowing how the server works.

Along with helping New Players, the lengthy process may also deter Ban Evaders.

The responses to all of the RP that the New player enters in the tutorial could also be stored by the server somewhere, and added to their submission for the Support staff to see how they responded to RP to see if it was correct or not. This would prevent people from just speedrunning the tutorial by just doing "/me XXX. /do XXX", etc.

 

3. The Review Process

Next, I'd like to suggest a more thorough review process when an application to join ECRP is made. I'm not staff so correct me if I'm wrong but this is how I understand the review process is when a New Player attempts to join ECRP.
Player connects to ECRP > IP & Social Club checked > Quiz > Make Character > Quiz Answers Reviewed > Deny/Accept.
I'd like to suggest that this Review process is more thorough, and detailed. Not only to prevent New Players from joining with no knowledge of the rules or what RP is, but also to further advance the security against Ban Evaders.
I think The Review Process is the most important step to deter and stop Ban Evading from happening as often. Currently Ban Evading is a common occurance, something I'm almost experiencing daily at this point, and I think The Review Process of a new player is the weak point that allows this from happening.
Currently Ban Evaders can join ECRP using a VPN, answering the quiz with their prior experience and knowledge of ECRP, spending 30 seconds on making their character, then spawning in and immediately having a gang, guns and rolling labs.

I believe a change to how the New Player system works will help deter this behaviour, or atleast reduce it happening. The Review Process should look more into the statistics of that player. For example Their IP, Steam Profile, Social Club, etc.
If the reviewing Support Staff finds anything that could be suspicious, they would have the power to /aduty and TP to that New Player but only in this tutorial dimension. The Support Staff would TP to the New Player, pausing their tutorial with a command, and questioning the player about what they found. For example if their Steam Account was created recently and has no experience, the Support Staff would TP to the New Player and question them on this, or if they identify their IP to be coming from a VPN, the Support Staff could question why this is, and if they could turn their VPN off, etc.

This, on top of the updated Quiz Questions, the RP that the player does in the Tutorial, and the time spent in the Character Creator, can give a much better picture to the Support Staff who are reviewing the application as to what this Player is joining ECRP for. For example:

Genuine Here to RP New Player: Spends time thinking about their answers to the quiz. Spends a good amount of time creating their character. Pays attention to the Tutorial

Possibly Not Here to RP New Player: Gives half assed answers to the quiz, Spends 30 seonds on Character Creation. Responds to Tutorial RP prompts with NonRP responses e.g "/me yes", etc.

 

All of these updates give the Staff who review the applications more information to work with, which helps the staff make a more informed decision on if this player is ready to join ECRP or if they need to be sent back to the quiz again, denied or just banned. These updates also help deter Ban Evaders, and give staff more information to crack down on Ban Evaders, before they can do more harm.

 

Conclusion

The main idea of this suggestion is the revamp the New Player system to be more friendly towards New Players, holding their hand and teaching them how to RP, while also detering Ban Evaders as a side effect. I think Quality of Life updates like these are more needed than features that can wait a month or two, for example the Wellness feature that was added recently. I believe updates like this should take the front seat in development to help the life of Eclipse RP thrive, to welcome New Players instead of villainise them, and to focus on this outbreak of Ban Evaders in the past month or two. It may not be as much as an exciting update, but I think for the life of ECRP to live on steadily, this needs to happen sooner rather than later.

 

TL;DR: Update Quiz with new questions, Add a Tutorial to aid new players, to teach them how to RP, and give the Support Staff who review applications more information to make more informed decisions.

[thedrago]

Love it ++++++1

[FrankieP]

+1 new players are insane

https://streamable.com/0i9gdu

[Aus1TV]

Omg +1 best suggestion I have ever seen on here 

[skeletee]

was in the middle of writing a suggestion around /do, /me, /ame text-wise rp, but I've just read this and I think you've outlined it perfectly! this is a great way to vet the rp standards of new players coming in. +11111111

[krooks365]

This comes down to what type of server eclipse is working itself to be. Is it going to be the server that is the first step for beginners and their first introduction to RP? Then +1 to this. But I also think there is some merit to putting the onus on the players to figure it out themselves as well.  If they want to promote more heavy RP and make this a more raised up community then there should be a learning curve, and not learning it means you are weeded out. 

I personally don't feel that someone who cannot figure it out is a positive addition to the community. I don't want that misconstrued as no empathy for the new player but I don't feel that we should be holding peoples hands when it comes to basic rule understanding and use of the commands. There are guides on the forums on how to RP and how to use the commands that they could utilize to learn while they wait on their quiz and also streams they can watch.

If anything perhaps an update/edit/new guide could be written to go into the guides section of the forums.