My suggestions to help new players (long ass post)

[Jagippi]

Hey Guys at Facepunch and people on the forums!
Rust just came out of early access and since that the reviews have poured in. After reading the horrible review that Gamespot gave Rust, my first impression was that the guy who wrote the review was a salty newbie. He most likely had no idea what to do, where to build, how to keep your head down and most importantly how to place a sleeping bag the first second you can. He most likely was used to games that hold the hand of the player and do not punish foolish acts. He should go play Spyro or some kids game!!! Well that was my first thought since I am a bad person. But few things he said resonated with me:
"Progression is tedious and can be stripped away at any given time."
"Playing Rust is a frustrating experience even with a friend or two in tow and feels downright impossible to go at alone. Wandering players will attack you at a moment's notice, with their time spent in the server used to build up an arsenal that no amount of skilled play can overcome."
As we all know the fact you can lose it all is the salt and pepper of rust! That is what makes the game fun! The challenge and the reward when either surviving or dying actually means something! After all if you play stupid games you win stupid prices. But this kind of game play can be very hard and frustrating on the new players who just got started.

----------
So you just purchased the game and now spawn with a rock on the beach. You look around the beautiful place and start to move around. The tutorials tell you to harvest wood and you are learning to open the inventory and craft menus, life is good. Sun is shining and your building plan is crafting, look at you GO! But wait, what is going on here?
So what happens next is the usual Rust thing. At least 8 fully geared players with AK:s are now running towards you, screaming and shooting. You see two other nakeds in front of them panicking and gunned down. At this point you have 10 minutes under your belt and needless to say you are confused as sh*t! You hear the old "CRUSH" sound and now your dead. Well i guess you have to respawn without all your previously farmed wood or what ever you found, shame the place you spawned next had autoturrets on the spawn area deployed.
That is how I started, that is how my friends started and has worked pretty well so far. Personally I think that is the fun part of the game to battle against the odds, hide from geared enemies and surprise them sometimes. But it most likely is very frustrating for most new players. Who wouldn't want to spend 30 bucks and get rekt constantly by vastly superior firepower and numbers?

----------
To help new players out I suggest the following:
1) We create servers that are newbie friendly and only new players can join them!
New players can join which ever server they want. The login screen suggests the newbie friendly servers to them at the start. The newbie servers are not shown to the old players.
The factor that separates newbies from experienced players can be time spent inside game or what tier gear you have crafted. Lets say if you have under 50 hours in the game you are considered a new player.
If you joined the rookie server and go over the 50 hour mark during wipe you are allowed to stay to the end of that wipe.
This in my opinion would make the first 50 hours in Rust more enjoyable for the new players and level the playing field for them without destroying the Rust experience. It would be just a bit more balanced homicidal and unforgiving Rust experience.
2) These servers could have places for people to meet and form alliances so they can move forward to the "Real" servers. Admins could be a little on the soft side and guide the new players if needed.

---------------
What this might accomplish is that new players can get foothold in the game and keep playing the game long after the first 30 hours. We could keep growing the community and get new a bit less salty members among us.
Please comment and discuss what we can do to help the new players. I only have 350 hours in the game so far, so I am a huge noob in the eyes of the veterans. But I very much like to help the new players out... when I am not murdering them for their rocks with my python...
the Gamespot review can be red here:
https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/rust-review-life-is-fleeting/1900-6416858/

Best regards
Jagippi

[Tri]

Rust isn't an easy game, and it's the steep learning curve of brutality that makes Rust, Rust. So easing people into it by putting all the noobs in one server is, in my opinion, asking for trouble; you will still have people attacking each other as the rules of play never ever change in vanilla. With 100% noobs in the game you are more likely to have less people who are invested in the game, taking it seriously - and just want to rock fight all day or troll and be a meme.

All that said, I don't particularly disagree with you (or some of the points made by the salty gamespot reviewer).
Because noobfriendly servers already exist, and have people with high numbers of hours playing on them who are helping noobs already.
So I don't agree with separating players.

The issue is there are *so* *so* *so* *so* *so* many servers and soooo many different ways to play Rust.
yet in the list and only 2 ways to scrub the list "Official, community, modded"
Yes you can search...but if you are new to rust, you have no idea what you're searching for; or what style of gameplay you want.
===================================
Perhaps a better way for the server list to deal with servers is to instead have a bunch of tags you can tick.
Beginner Servers
Regular Servers
Regular WIpe (Once monthly)
Short Wipe (Once Fortnightly)
Super short (Once Weekly)
Battlefield
etc etc

ticking a tag would help a new player filter down and perhaps get an experience which is closer to their expectation of gameplay.

[Jagippi]

That is a really valid thing facepunch should focus on with the server list managment.
If we could filter servers by more variables it would make it more easy for people to find servers they like.
Personally I do believe that we could benefit segregating servers and players by playtime. Ofcourse not on all but on some servers, if the server admin wants.
One thing we should as a community to keep in mind is that sometimes it is okay to help the starting out guys.

[Tri]

One of the tags could be "-100 hours only" ;)

But then who would teach them?! :P