Another playtester?
horror_kid
Join Date: 2002-06-14 Member: 765Members
Join Date: 2002-06-14 Member: 765Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Resist the urge to skip this post mods</div>Now, I would like to start by saying that I am in no way requesting a playtest spot. However, there may be one more that would be helpful to fill. After the tutorial and manual are completed, how will you know how well they work. Re-teaching people that know the game inside and out may not surface the tutorial and manual's shortcomings. If you were to pick out even a single person, who exhibits average to below average experience in games, you would be able to get a good feel for how well prepared they, therefore an average person, would be to enter the NS world. The entire NS community would benefit from this. The inexperienced players would be better prepared for the adventure ahead, while the experienced gamer will be that much more immersed in the game, because there will be fewer people bumbling around on the servers. This in no way will perfect or guarantee anything. Some people, for instance, will not even read the manual, or play the tutorial.
So, devs do as you wish, but I feel that taking action with this idea will improve the initial reaction to the game. And, forum goers, please do not reply with "oh this is stupid" or "please make it me", leave that for the devs to decide. Thank you for reading this long winded post.
So, devs do as you wish, but I feel that taking action with this idea will improve the initial reaction to the game. And, forum goers, please do not reply with "oh this is stupid" or "please make it me", leave that for the devs to decide. Thank you for reading this long winded post.
Comments
I think this is horror_kid's coy plea for a playtesting spot...
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
heh, however true that may be, I think he might be right on some levels.
However, as of now and by my understanding, the training map and manual have not been completed, so its a bit early to start searching around for this though.
I think it might be benificial for Flayra to pick a group of people .. say - 5 or so to test how well the manual and training level teach new players how to play NS - close to when NS will be realesed, like a week or so ahead.
However, I deffinatly have no say in this maner and this post is just a long winded "I agree" statement.
<!--EDIT|Silver Fox|July 30 2002,23:44-->
Also, you should have named the topic something different, people might get ocnofused with the other thread "Another Playtest" <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
Though I'm guessing that's not a concern for now, but I could be wrong. Anyhow... A manual and trainer evaluation/n00b-approve would be a smart idea before the release. Unless that has already been taken care of... <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->
Oh, and by the way, I honestly am not attempting to squeeze a playtest spot out of the dev team. I am merely posing an idea. I leave everything else in their hands.
Lionhead brought in lots of new PTers, they would change them on a weekly basis (though of course keep the old ones) because someone who has played with the game for months on end will be so used to the interface that they wont notice anything wrong with it. They may even say good changes are bad as they need to relearn the controls.
Of course teh B&W interface still isnt perfect but I think its close enough for such a complicated game, close as it could get probably.
The only reason why Im not gonna force the issue (... not that I could really, but I could go on and on and on and... you know me) is because people have trained on HL and the others mods for it. All they really need to learn is the commander role and general tactics for NS... I think that stuff comes with experiance though (and ownin a few RTS's).
Also, I'm sorry, I was unaware of a similar idea being publicly stated, and was merely posing my take on things.
now thats one thing. Natural Selection is a very complicated game, with the commander mode etc. If you dont read the manual, you can play, because the dev team is doing a great job in lettings things explain for themselves, but the problem is players dont read the manual. This makes total noobieness, it took me a while before i knew the game and found out how everything worked, WITH the help of the other playtesters.
I think players should always read the manual, because it will become a helpful manual (not like many manuals who say 'click to fire' but really explaining).
I'd be like 'Woah! When they put that in?!'
'Silver ... thats been in for about 5 PT's now ...'
'Oh .. '
<!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->
Startling how much you know about a game you have never played.
I think it's a very good idea to bring in a handful of newbie PTers in just before release in order to check usability. What seems like second nature to a PT might be complete gibberish to someone not familiar with the game.
Obviously though, this is down to Flayra and MonsE in the end and ultimately we'll never get better feedback than when the game is released, so this kind of "idiot proofing" for want of a better expression, may not happen. Who knows? <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->
Heh, you thought this out well, dude. I misread your post first, I thought you wanted a good gamer to do this testing. I was going to point out that you probably want the biggest retards imaginable to test the tutorial.
I honestly don't think any of us here now would qualify for this position. Ideally, you would want someone who has never heard of NS.
Either that, or just make sure the official website is very well indicated in the game. That way, they can come to the forums for help. That will be the real test of all of us forum denizens here... who will stick around after the launch to help n00bs?
This question was asked about a week ago, and someone on the Dev Team (either Flayra or MonsE) said that they were already planning probably getting playtesters once the tutorial and manual were done.
*polishes rabbit foot*
Well, that's only because most of the PT's had been following NS for many months before playtesting began. We already knew (mostly) what to do and how to do it, because we'd been reading about it on the forums for such a long time. Someone who has never come here, and who doesn't know much about the game will certainly not be able to play nearly as effectively as someone who's read a manual.
NS may still be a first person shooter for all but one player on the server, but that doesn't mean that it's only about aim and fire.
That's why I've spent the past few days adding tooltips and other help (you'll see) to explain all the basics, in as pretty and noticeable was as possible. I've heard some of the PTs say that even they have learned some things from the help.
I'll be bringing NS to a couple private LAN parties, where no one has seen the game before. That will let me watch over shoulders and see how people first experience the game, and figure out what still needs work to ease players into it without reading a manual or going through a tutorial.
We will proably also be getting a bunch of fresh playtesters in the near future, to do just this. We also need more PTs to test bigger games.