Tutorial
Gaidan
Join Date: 2006-10-31 Member: 58132Members
Join Date: 2006-10-31 Member: 58132Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Jesus would need help starting NS.</div>I think the only thing that will truly allow NS2 to expand its audience is a trainer of some kind. I'm not talking some little server that has bots on it which allows people to explore how to command - we're talking full on scripted events which show you how an event works, and why it's happening. Let's face it, we all started out as cloakers in Combat (well most of us), everyone walked up to marines before we took the five minutes required to learn bunnyhopping, and yes the man from Nantucket did in fact say F*** it. I think the trainer needs to start out with the trainee waiting to spawn, watching a skulk eat someone; than lerk, than a fade, than a stalker (my new alien) than an onos. The VO comes over and explains the different kinds of aliens and their abilities. You spawn and proceed to build every building as the VO explains what it does and why it's important.
I'm fairly sure everyone here on these boards understands what the games about and why it's amazing - so let's all come up with ideas that could be implemented in a trainer that shows everyone else.
I'm fairly sure everyone here on these boards understands what the games about and why it's amazing - so let's all come up with ideas that could be implemented in a trainer that shows everyone else.
Comments
I think the autohelp is very good, but it could be expanded upon and made much easier - how about having the "?/" key on the keyboard act as a help prompt in game. the player could press it anytime and it would write a brief explanation of whatever is in the players view or crosshair. The descriptions should be limited to 25 words or less, but provide good information. kind of like context based.
e.g. an alien player walks up to a marine res tower and hits "?" key
A pop up would appear (pointing at the res tower) which says "destroy this structure to help your team. Your ### is the most effective way to destroy it, press *** key to select this ability)
Depending on what lifeform you are and how many hives, and what upgrades you have it would pick the best one. Perhaps even your distance could play a factor.
If you were a gorge sitting in a vent and your team had two hives. The ### would say bile bomb ability - and the *** would indicate the "3" key (unless its been changed to another key in which case it would then show the corresponding key).
I also think that the alien evolution menus need to be changed to context based - at the moment if you are a skulk at the start of a game you have about 30 options - all but 1 greyed out (except for the gorge ability). Why show these at all until they are actually able to be used?
They also need popups to tell you what they do when you mouse over the options - you mouse over the MC adrenaline upgrade it should pop saying -" this will let allow to perform more attacks before resting."
You are a skulk and a heavy armour walks around the corner - y"ou press your "?" key and it will say - parasite this enemy with ### key and run away."
or if you have 3 hives and no res in your personal pool the tip would say - "use your xeno ability on ### key to damage the heavy marine, timing is crucial"
or if you have 3 hives and a lot of res (lets face it alot of new players don't watch their res count) then the tip would say "help your team defened the hive by turning into an ### (depending on res count)"
this would also need to be done for the marine team, but probably not as details as the commader is there to guide marines - but some enchancements to make it easier would be great.
Why not also have some sort of flag that lets other players on the team know that the player is new or has only played a few times - commanders would go a lot easier on them - players are usually helpful when they konw that a player is new. they only get frustrated when they think its someone doing a bad job.
There would be probably 200-300 of these tips, a fair amount of work, but yeah would be good - not just for new players, but for existing players, im guessing that everyone will be a noob for a few weeks atleast when NS2 comes out, so these tips could really help out everyone <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
yeah, i think a good education is the key. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/nerd-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::nerdy::" border="0" alt="nerd-fix.gif" />
But a training mission would be good imo, because a newbie can fu** up the game very easy.
I got the idea of a nonvisible point system... U get points from the trainingmission, OR u can choose to play the game immeditly, but then u got restricted abilities (so u cant fu** up the game) and u also got the newbie-help with popup or even better with voice.
Would that idea easy to realise?
What about more weaponpower if u're a newbie?
for sure we should make sure that u're only ONE time a newbie.
To the menu: it would be useful to see, what abilities u could get with that lifeform.
with the flags... that would be an idea for both teams. But remember the problem that some ppl dont want to play with "newbie".
So it could be an idea to show the flags only after a few minutes in the game.
Or maybe see the flags only over the gamescreen, not over any other hud or something.
And a Autobalance for these Newbies would be necessary.
And to make these tips, thats not difficult, everyone can make some suggestions or ideas.
The shortest and easiest to understand tips should be choosen.
Waiting for replys,
Cheers,
Moe the God of Dammit
Ps. greetings from sydney to brisbane, from a german guy whos looking forward to get back to germany and play NS !!!
... god dammit, how can i change my posts?
NS does need something to teach players
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Yes, since i start ns im wondering "what the hell happend, what i need to do".
After 2 hours playing, i understand the most.
But maybe a small tutorial is not wrong. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/asrifle.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::asrifle::" border="0" alt="asrifle.gif" />
The only barrier I can think of to a fun tutorial would be if the developers don't want to dedicate the time to creating the single player experience, in which case it would just involve a bunch of reading, yes?
Otherwise, you could have a series of themed off-line single player maps, with bots, in which new players could go to "boot camp" of sorts, visiting shooting galleries, running obstacle courses, and getting some fun voice over commentary the whole time. My inspiration for this is, well, I thought the way Half Life 1 did its tutorials was just awesome, especially Opposing Force.
Think that is still too boring? Make the experience about being in training and "Oops!" an emergency of some kind happens where you have to learn the game in an action packed sequence. Still get some voice over commentary in there though, like some drill sergeant or hive mind yelling "Go go go! Quick, weld that or we are all doomed!"
If CO is still put into NS2, I think there should be some sort of tutorial explaining the differences between the two games. I know a lot of CO players who just can't make the jump to NS because they can't comprehend why they don't have Adrenaline and Celerity at the same time. The tutorial should go in-depth, because the player should already know what evolutions and upgrades are available.
There should also be the other tutorial explaining NS from scratch, while also explaining some do's or don'ts. For example, walls of OC's would be don't, but little packs (2 - 3) of them are a do. There should also be suggestions on what to do in certain situations, like ask the team what chamber they want when a new hive goes up or to drop res nodes when there are nodes free.
This was just my 2 res <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
When it comes to Single player tutorials in online games I have mixed feelings...
While a single player can help you learn the basics in a comfortable, safe environment its lessons are often quickly forgotten once you're dunked in the social game; I played Phantasy Star Online solo for a while before going online and while I was exceptionally conditioned in playing the game I felt lost, awed and bedazzled when I went online... it was like I had to relearn the game again :o
You should also take into account that often single player aspects of games can teach bad habits that aren't conductive in the social game (see WoW aggro control fun in a group for a classic example :p ).
Perhaps a better idea for 'training' would be Coop Scenarios? These would be simple objective based missions where a team of players has to take on a map populated with scripted and AI stuff to fufil their goals in the NS universe. If done correctly, these would be ideal for training people up not only in play mechanics but also in teamwork :D
Ideally most of these would be built with a mind to slowly introduce and acclimitise the players to the controls and features that make up NS2 as well as aspects of teamwork and common strategies they could utilise in the field.
No, they dont say that exact stuff, but certain things that the players trigger, will cause a little help tip to pop up somewhere (if you have the help option on).
>_>;;;
Also, the reason most people skip tutorials is that they spend 10 minutes telling you how to move around. Every knows how to move, so it's just annoying and insulting to be told again.
Instead, give a QUICK overview of what is UNIQUE about NS. People would be more willing to watch that.
What I would really like is a single player bot option to try out new relocation, choke points and siege spots on each map at home without connecting to a server. This would allow you to train and learn as well. The interface would have two options:
1. Sim a real game like the WB bots and
2. Allow you to command 5 marines and have the option of setting what species the aliens turned into, control res flow etc. e.g. You move to double res and build your base, select a building and then type "/SIM skulk 2, Gorge 0, lerk 2, fade 1, onos 1, hive 3, min 2" The alien bots then spawn and try to destroy the selected building plus any marines/TFs defending it for two mins. You can see how the flow of the base worked. TF in the wrong spot? Type ”/res 100” and redesign. If you get out of the command chair to fight as well then a marine replaces you and drops items on every one when requested (like resupply). If you die then you go to the front of the respawn cue straight way.
Of course this will only give an idea of how well it will stack up against real players and you will still have to test it in pubs but at least the ruff edges will be knocked off. It would also be handy for generation guides, especially if an outline option was included so that a clearer screen shot could be generated like this.
Just a one off post here (I think) seeing as I mentioned this recently in another part of the forum :3
When it comes to Single player tutorials in online games I have mixed feelings...
While a single player can help you learn the basics in a comfortable, safe environment its lessons are often quickly forgotten once you're dunked in the social game; I played Phantasy Star Online solo for a while before going online and while I was exceptionally conditioned in playing the game I felt lost, awed and bedazzled when I went online... it was like I had to relearn the game again :o
You should also take into account that often single player aspects of games can teach bad habits that aren't conductive in the social game (see WoW aggro control fun in a group for a classic example <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> ).
Perhaps a better idea for 'training' would be Coop Scenarios? These would be simple objective based missions where a team of players has to take on a map populated with scripted and AI stuff to fufil their goals in the NS universe. If done correctly, these would be ideal for training people up not only in play mechanics but also in teamwork <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Ideally most of these would be built with a mind to slowly introduce and acclimitise the players to the controls and features that make up NS2 as well as aspects of teamwork and common strategies they could utilise in the field.
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I disagree. A single player campaign only has to describe every building, what they do - along with common tactics on how to use them, and all the units, and what they do. It isn't too difficult and it would help an amazing amount to new players instead of dumping them in or doing coop scenarios.
Looking at a building or something they don't know about could cause problems. Especially if it's something that they need to know.
I.E. - When marines see OCs, if help is enabled, it will say, "This is an enemy offense chamber, watch out!"
Something like this for all enemy structures in the game could be very useful for new players, as they will figure out what to target first in a fight, what structures need to be dealt with, etc...
Also, in terms of a tutorial, to make things shorter, perhaps there could just be a help index from the main menu as well as a tutorial - A quick reference guide, you could say.
The tutorial could go over game objectives, basic techniques, and point out uses for various things. The quick reference guide would tell you what alien forms do what, alien techniques and what they do, alien upgrades and what they do, marine items and their stats, and information about using the CC. Perhaps a more detailed explination of the CC could be included in the tutorial.