There is litterally nowhere that tells you if you want to go into commander view you press f2. In the controles menu for All and commander theres no f2. When you go into the cv to drive there should be a pop up or somewhere telling you to press f2 to acces commander view.
I'm sure I've posted a couple times to this effect, but never as its own posting. But yes, it's unfortunate.
The only place i could find it is the manual: http://www.empiresmod.com/docs/commanding_and_research.htm But nobody reads that until they've searched everywhere else.
Yes, Empires doesn't tell you nothing. When I started playing Empires, I felt like a monkey inside nuclear power plant. Our in-game instruction should be able to lead a newb comm from dropping a ref, forward rax, to research a dual ranged/guided ML heavy tank. I mean, if you break down the procedure, there's not much to teach. Drop a ref on a ref site when you see friendly unit next to it. (Although most vet comms still require people to ask for the ref, when it's right on the minimap.) When you see units extending too far from the main base, drop a forward rax. Drop a radar as soon as possible. Drop a VF right after as soon as possible. Make sure you research engine/armor before hitting better chassis. and DO NOT start a new research branch before you extract the engine/armor out of the current branch. That's pretty much all, our current research tree is friendly enough for nubs.
It would be better if all the research was on one screen so nubs would know which trees specific weapons/armor/engine were under (i.e. if someone asks for DU, it would be clear that the tech path is physics -> projectile physics -> heavy caliber machine gun).
you're skipping over so much. its like telling the money inside the nuclear power plant " its easy to operate this plant, just turn on the lights, press the auxilary power support button, activate the main reactor and then turn on the autopilate program" Its easy for us. But theres so much more you are forgetting 1. How to get in comm view 2. How to access the building menu/research menu? 3. How to build buildings ( green/red) how to rotate them? 4. Status bar, why cant I drop a building ( not enough resources ), why cant I research ( already researching ) 5. How do I research? Click etc
The vehicle hint when looking at the cv says that yeah. That can be turned off though, and for some reason I don't feel like I've seen vehicle hints since one update.
I feel like all the tutorials should be redone to be more comprehensive. First tutorial is the FPS portion of the game broken up into Basics of an FPS and Empires Infantry FPS (Include BOTS) Second Tutorial is Tank Driving, goes through customization and REQUIRING them to customize and highlighting buttons and how to do it. Noobs who do the tutorial still don't know how to customize a tank and are still helpless when it comes to making a vehicle. Have them fight like, an AI tank and kill some turrets. Would work great. Third Tutorial is Commanding, broken up into Basics and Advanced. Basic goes over how to get into the comm vehicle and comm view, going over the buttons and how to do basic research. Advanced would then be how to do research, how to make vehicles in comm view, and a decent research tree. Then require them to do the Comm tutorial BEFORE they can command in game.
You could REALLY just use the tutorial map as is. Make one for going over the basics of Infantry with some placements. Make one with some placements that just have turrets for tank combat and then it would teach them how to make it while making it. Then use the map as a tutorial for commanding with bots that fight in the center and refs that you have to get (like there are now). Walk through research etc and building placement. I'm sure JGF would be happy to re-record tutorial sound bites for it if needed. Edit: Or use the bot test map. Currently, there is no "tutorial", it's just a sandbox where players have to "explore" on there own, but Empires has so much they don't know what they are missing.
Is this really the problem we have with Empires? Nubs don't know how to command because it doesn't tell them to press F2 ? Will it tell them all of the other things they need to know to keep from wrecking a match? What about telling them: Not to be scout on any map, to be rifleman on infantry map and engineer on commander map. To inform them how bring up the Engineer Tool. How to build, revive, upgrade a turret, drop a wall, lead a squad. Not to throw engineer grenades at people, or vehicle. I could go on and on, but maybe once you fix this F2 problem, some of those other issues could be looked into. We have many players learning rapidly. And we take the time to feed them every bit they can consume. We do remotely command through them, and they learn and enjoy being the commander. But I do think there should be a 100 hour minimum game play before they are even allowed to opt in when population is >10 ppl (including spec). They depopulate servers once they command, or vets just stack and mow them down. Anyone opting in as com that knows how to press F2, really needs someone remotely tracking their research and telling them everything to do. Trump does that very well, but ideally we had a nub mode, that each player could be turned off. That would be something that recommends the next research options and informs them all of the things they need to do, including outside the com vehicle. It would start with a warning of how much slower they will be than an experienced com and that alone could cost them the game. Don't get me wrong - the training videos are awesome. Keep them coming! But F2 is yet another non-problem that is being addressed when there are SOOOO many other issues that could make this game more fun. Like putting armor back on tanks, and keeping a tank with regen from dieing once it returns to a repair pad after being hit by a bio canon. It sucks to be on a repair pad for 15 seconds and your tank blows up. Bio Canon itself has screwed alot of map where BIO ML was intentionally disabled, but now BIO Canon is available. Absorbant is now the proper amor to combat BIO, Reactive just sucks and is heavy, Compo is only strong against HE Canon but DU destroys Reactive, Compo and Bio like it's paper. What has happened to tanks really needs to be addressed and it makes this game less fun.
This thread originally wasnt about everything noobs cant do, its just a small feedback on something that should obviously be there that isnt. It is nowhere to be found in controles. You just have to know to press f2 or you're fucked. It's derailing towards what could we do to make noobs better commanders or make them more prepared. Dont put both of them next to each other.
