Newbie Friendly

[raizin]

make a gang limit 25-30

also have a set time/date for when the set ends.

[Gordd]

Another turn based game that I play that primarily focuses on gang/clan/group play has a player search function to make finding potential recruits MUCH easier.

Something that would allow gangs to search by level, specialty, last log-on and/or # of log-ons per week would go a long way towards finding recruits. Non-gang members could also select a YES/NO "Do you wish to be recruited?" to further refine the search function and let those who prefer to solo (or are alts to current gang members) not be bothered by recruiting efforts.

~Gordd

[Metus]

This is an excellent suggestion and goes right along with Murzim's request for ideas on how to recruit and keep new players.

Metus

[TerpU82]

I'm sure some of you are as much of online game junkies as me, but I'm not sure if anyone feels as strongly as I do about this.

Murz, the interface for BM I have always felt is extremely unfriendly. Options are not laid out in logical formats, and there are too many "click-throughs" to get to aspects of the game that should be on the opening page.

If you look at other games, the interface just seems more refined. More like they paid attention to making the game user friendly, not in how you play the game, but in how the website makes game play more easy.

Not by any means the solution, but an example and a type of game that I've played where game play is very easy, is to have a non-loading frame to the left that has links with specific names that are self explanatory...and have a lot of them.

I know an overhaul is out of the question, but there are smaller things that have been suggested which just irritate the crap out of me every time. For example, something I think everyone has gone through - Setting up a Crime:

1) click on "gun" icon to commit a crime
2) select category of crime
3) select crime
4) set up crime and realize I don't know if my mobster has the right item equipped
5) open a new window
6) click on the "head" button
7) click on manage mobsters
8) click equip on the mobster
9) realize I haven't bought the item yet the mobster needs
10) open new window
11) click on "gold coin" icon for black market
12) click category of item i want to buy
13) click buy
14) hit F5 19 times instead of having a box where i can just type "19" and hit buy
15) close window
16) reload mobster equip page so that it recognizes i have now bought the item
17) equip the mobster
18) close window
19) hit enter on crime

I realize this may be a tad bit too detailed, but I just wanted to point out how tedious it can be.

If there were a left hand menu that had clear options like "Equip Mobsters" and "Purchase from Black Market" amongst many others. Less pictures and more words for the icons. How do newbies know what clicking the horse icon does?

As for a fantastic example of helpfiles that I have ever found (and they put a TON of work into it), I would check out http://www.f1-tm.com. This game isn't that user friendly either, clicking through multiple menus and sub menus, but its helpfiles are amazing. As for a user friendly system, both http://www.lordsgame.com and http://www.earth2025.com are really great for the interfaces, not reloading 1800 times, and having a natural flow of events for newbies (earth 2025 also has great helpfiles, lords DOESN'T, but has a "gang" system that is second to none where gangs teach more than anything else).

Because BM is such an awesome fantastic idea, I stay. I certainly don't stay for the user friendly gameplay and ease of learning the game. My rant is over. I don't mean to offend, I just feel that others would agree with me and no one has really mentioned it. I may be wrong though! Also, I'm OCD as a warning, hehe.
14) reload crime window so that it recognizes I have now equipped the mobster

[Crazy Escimo]

14) hit F5 19 times instead of having a box where i can just type "19" and hit buy

we can already do that what we need its buy 19 items NOW, instead of needing to spam the refresh bottom aka f5-
other then that yeah pretty much agree

[TerpU82]

Crazy,
That was my point, I think there's a slight language barrier there.

[Crazy Escimo]

put or ,. or what ever between times and instead .. easy to misunderstood if you read it as a 1 straight sentence

[TerpU82]

bump, i want some comments!