As part of Subvein's new HUD redesign I'm adding 3 new nifty skill-queue presets up the top of the screen. In earlier versions a new player joining a round would have to go through the following:

1) Notice the "Unlock Skills (N)" tab up the top of the HUD and press N.
2) They'd be taken out of the flow of the game and back into the menu.. overwhelmed by the massive selection of skills to choose from.
3) Then they'd have to navigate and figure out the skill system and choose their skills, even though they have no real idea how they work.
4) They have to manually click LEVEL SKILL for each skill, and if they joined halfway through a round they might have to do this over 10 times.
5) Figure out how to get back into the game by pressing ESC or clicking the RETURN TO GAME button.
6) FINALLY they can start playing.. but chances are they didn't queue up any skills, so next time they level up they have to go through the entire process again.

Now Subvein's skill variety and flexibility is great and lovely once you get the hang of things.. but it's damn tedious and overwhelming for a new player. Often, when someone downloads a small game like Subvein and is starting off.. they have VERY little patience. It's not like they paid for it - hell, they didn't even have to wait that long for it to download. They have almost ZERO investment in the game and can't be fucked to figure out how it all works. They just want to be entertained. If they figure out they like the game THEN they will surely want to check out all the skills and be like "ooo, I think Blade Fury defines me as a person!!" and work on their perfect build.. but when they're first starting they just want to play as easily and quickly as possible.


So what I'm doing is replacing the little "Unlock Skills (N)" tab with a bar that goes along the top of the screen whenever you have remaining skill points. This bar will have 3 buttons on it, and a description saying something like:

"You have 2 unspent skill points! Press N to unlock skills; OR hold Alt and click one of these 3 helpful skill builds!"

And then there will be 3 buttons saying:
Fighter
Assassin
Sorcerer (maybe something cooler?)

Each button corresponds to a skill queue, and by holding Alt + clicking the button it'll automatically set up a skill queue for them and start leveling skills. The new user experience is:

1) Notice the bar and description up the top.
2) Make a much easier and quicker decision on one of the 3 familiar presets.
3) Hold Alt + click their chosen preset. Done.

Now they're all set up. They didn't have to break the flow of the game by going back into the menu, and they weren't overwhelmed by the massive selection of skills. The queue has been set up, so they don't have to worry about it next time they level up either. Basically, that whole massive tedious process of skill selection is removed, and they can just play the game. Furthermore, because they're using a specially made skill queue they won't end up with a random bunch of skills that don't work well together. We can guarantee that they'll have some means of healing, escape, yada yada.

Will they have complete control over their skills? Of course not. Will they care? Nup. Not when they're just starting out.. they just wanna play. When the next round comes along and they realise that this game might be a bit of fun, then they're a bit more invested and they might take the time to check out the skills by pressing N and going into the menu.



And the best part of all this?? The skill queues are customizable!! Which means you veteran players who know what you want can delete the existing skill presets and create your own perfect build. You can have up to 6 presets and you can give them all custom names!! Talk about a time saver. Just click and GO!

The only thing you'll have to remember are synergy points, as they won't be part of of the skill queue. But they happen once every 10 levels.. so no biggie.



Anyway.. MY QUESTION TO YOU IS: What would be the 3 best skill builds for new players? And what would you call them?

Remember this is not what YOU would use as an advanced player.. but rather what would help out new players the most and ultimately make them stick around to play another round. I think it's important to focus on healing, an understanding of active skills (though not too many) and general easyness to use. You need 1 for each skill tree, with no cross-tree skill selection.

GO GO GO!

Oh, and the skill queues should be about 20 skills long.

THANK YOU

Anyway, maybe something like:

PHYSICAL
-5 self rep
-5 static shield (not ideal, but I reckon it'd be better if they only had one active skill at level 5. Maybe switch for corpse construction?)
-5 frenzy
-5 force fields

MENTAL
-5 regen/5 invisible (in alternating pattern)
-5 dash
-5 critical shot (also not ideal, but there's not really much that fits with invisible well :/)

CYBERNETIC
-5 vamp/5 bullet time (in alternating pattern)
-5 mana drain
-5 slowmo speedup


I don't know if mine are very balanced actually: Physical has three active skills while the others only have one. :/

PERFECT!

Fighter should have max 2 combat skills and 2 defensive skills (except upgrades like weapons-handling or bouncing bullets). I think Self-Repair (>5 lvl), Regeneration (1) and Critical shot (1) are necessary so we already have 2 defensive and one combat skills. The 2nd combat skills may be Frenzy (with 2 upgrades) or Radiate (with rupture). If we choose Radiate that means we'll have more Self-repair.
So I have two variants for 30th level FIGHTER:
1)S-R(5), Regen(1), Crit(1), Frenzy(10), Weapons Handling(10), Clip magnet(3)
OR
2)S-R(10), Regen(1), Crit(1), Radiate (10), Rupture(8)
In both variants you have only 2 active skills. And yes, I used cross-tree selection.

Assasin.
There are a lot of builds for mental tree but I suggest this one:
Invisibility (10) Critical shot (5) Blade Fury (10) Dash (5)

Cyborg. (Techno-mage)
Plasma ball is too hard to use for a new player. Bullet time is cool but it is also hard to use. So remains Energise, Vampirism and Mana drain. Energise/Vampirism/Energise/Vampirism/Energise/Mana Drain/Vampirism... till 15th level: Vampirism (5), Mana Drain (5), Energise (5). Then Black hole (10) with Darkness (5).

Yup

I figured it might be good idea to emphasize bullet time though. I remember when I was just starting; the main skills I really wanted to try were Bullet Time, and Invisible, because they always had a noticeable effect regardless of how good I was, and were extremely easy to understand. Plus, come on, slowing down bullets is just awesome.

There wasn't really anything in the physical tree I wanted to try though. Maybe radiate would be good, but that would give the player two active skills right away.

Hmmm good ideas.

I'm think the question is what skill lines are best to introduce to new players? Assuming we always give them a bit of healing, what remains; Frenzy or Radiate? Bullet Time or Plasma? Venom or Blade Fury? Once we know those building the skill tree is fairly simple.

So Frenzy vs Radiate.. which is more noob friendly? Which will set them up to have a better understanding of the game? Which is more fun?

I think I'm leaning more towards Frenzy on this one.. mostly because it's easier to use (don't have to get close to enemies) and uses up less mana thus saving more for their Self Repair. Plus, Frenzy has the potential to be REALLY fun if you manage to get on a role.. and I'd like new players to experience that. Force Fields are cool, but not as fun as the combat skills.

2x Self Repair //good start with most important skill
1x Static Shield //very handy to have at least 1 point
3x Self Repair //build up healing to a healthy level
1x Frenzy //should be rdy for Frenzy now.. only needs 1 point atm
5x Self Repair //now everything is in place, max out self repair
2x Corpse Construction //next best thing for healing, only 2 lvls cause they're noob
4x Frenzy //bit more frenzy
2x Weapon Handling //bit of aim
2x Clip Magnet //just a few points to show off clip magnet (nice visual skill)
8x Weapon Handling //max out aiming

What do you think of that 30 lvl Fighter build? Improvements?

1x static field... all new players, when they join the game, ask about this skill because they dont really understand how does it works. I think more self repair should make more sense.

Heres my take on a few guidelines of preset builds to use.

1) The skills should be fun to use and be very visible or have a noticable impact when you use them. (people want to SEE their skills, rather than having a passive improvement.
2) One of the 1st two points you get at level 1 should be invested in an active skill. It should also be the most user friendly skill if you plan on having a few different active skills in the build (people might not think about switching to use other skills so the 1st one should be the most usefull, since it defaults to the right mouse button). The point of having an active skill 1st up, is this game is all about using guns and skills together. Rather than jsut getting into a game and only being able to shoot.
3) You shouldnt really max a skill before level 20, since you want to give people a bit of diversity, to give them a taste of skills they can have. After all, its more fun using all kinds of things, rather than repeatedly using the same skill.

This is just what i think is important for someone just starting out, in order for them to enjoy the game and want to come back.

An example for the cybernetic tree could be

Plasma ball x1
Vampirism x3
Bullet time x1
Mana drain x3
Plasma ball x2
Splash x3
Vamp x2
Bullet time x3
Plasma x2