I'm probably not the one who should be asking this, but that's never stopped me before. Is there anyone who is new to Empires and played the Tutorial who could give their views on how good/bad/ugly/whatever it is? What does everyone else think of the Tutorial?
I thought it was pretty well done but I think the research times should be shortened for sake of experimenting with the vehicle customising
right click. The map could probably do with a huge research speed multiplier though, like 15x or something ridiculous, so that you can see how to start research but not have to sit through it.
What Dee and Metal Smith said. All in all, the tutorial was way better and more informative than i had hoped for. Combined with the ingame "this is a barracks" messages it's about as noobfriendly as it can get. Only thing missing is gameplay tips like "Speed is everything", "Repairing a tank > buying a new one", "Act quickly when the commander gives orders", ... These are all things that should be taken for granted, but a reminder seems required when i see new players take their time getting somewhere, or not reacting to sudden tactical movements. Not that telling them would make them do it though
The tutorial is simply amazing. Some C&C: The 2 turrets (step 2, after building the armory), have an awkward position, perhaps they should be slightly further away from the glass, with the room extended in depth a bit, most ingame scenario's involve longer ranges so it's more natural to have to throw the grenades as far as possible. By placing them further away you also remove the slightly tedious nade bounce against the back wall. Further steps showcasing all the turrets and buildings is IMO unnecessary and also unnatural. I couldn't get the audio to work in sandbox mode, but if they work, the preceding steps can be removed, which IMHO is better. When you are killed to show the spawning process, the key binds are only mentioned in audio. You should let them go through these steps in their own pace, so perhaps it would've been better to show the default key bind next to the steps visually.
I heard there was a tutorial. Problem is, I can't find it. (Well, I could always 'map emp_tutorial', but have fun convincing a newbie to do that.)
^adding to what demented said I've heard some noobs claim the tutorial not to start up for them and also that they can not spawn in it.
In the prerelease version the map didn't have a minimap, so i couldn't spawn in the sandbox area. Those files seem to have been added to the steam version though, as all works well for me now.
You guys are all insane, the tutorial map doesn't teach anything. It assumes way too much of the guy playing it.
I dare you to come up with something better. Also, our apologies for not trying to make a condescending tutorial found in EVERY SINGLE FPS EVER MADE IN THE LAST 5 YEARS. IMO, I would assume that if you are capable of finding empires mod, you must have played an FPS before, and understand the basic concepts. Also, if you can't be fucked to mess around in the tutorial to figure things out, you sure as hell aren't going to get any help in game.
What needs to be included. Saying that it needs more doesn't help add to the list of things that needs to be added :/ Squad skills definitely need to be added somehow. Placing turrets and cameras could be done quick if we had a way to trigger commands when an entity is placed. If we had that we could make a great commander tutorial as well. A target entity that could have 2 models, one for dead and one for revived to explain the revive. Make mines an entity we can place on the map. Make engineer walls a entity that can be placed with all of their in game properties, and we could have walls placed as examples of how to set up walls, or their uses. OR You could just learn this stuff in game
I said to Keef repeatedly, that a room with the classes in, voice clip describing each class, and a show of their weaponry/main skill (hologram of Gren over a mine, engy reviving a corpse, rifleman crouching and maybe a blood decal on him, Scout hidden (still the main skill even if it sucks for gameplay)). And a simple vehicle creation section, where you build a vehicle and go through a vehicle clip. Presets will make it easy. And the room with the buildings needs them to be actually accessible, so players can look around them. They shouldn't have to go into the sandbox to do this. They also need to be lit better. The "Basic FPS" bit needs to be mandatory, otherwise they don't know how to prone, or how essential crouch jumping is.
The hidden scout is already there, didn't you see his hologram!? IMO, the skills as a voice in the map with a hologram is a ton more effort for something to be read to you. Especially when you can read it elsewhere. The tutorial will never turn new players into well educated elite. It's only to get over the new player hump where you know nothing. No more "Spawning, how does it work!?". No more scouting around cause you don't know wtf is going on. Some of this other stuff would be much better if it was stuck in a wiki. I'm not saying that the stuff you are talking about would be bad in a tutorial, but there are a couple of problems with the execution. Mainly that they can't be well executed. Point is, unless there is a quick and efficient way to show the player how to do something (less than 15 seconds), no one wants to listen to or do it. Who the hell wants to sit there and listen to a minute long explanation of the engineer skills? The way to make an effective tutorial is, during the tutorial, treat the players how you think THEY want to be treated. I wouldn't want to play through a tutorial that bores me with minor details that make no sense to me. If I'm really interested, I'll look up the info or ask more about it in game. It's enough for them to know that it is there and that they can do certain things. If there was a quick way to have dropping turrets, reviving, and defusing mines in the tutorial, then I'm all for it. But you can't half ass it and just make them sit there and listen to someone talk for more than 15 seconds, unless the voice is exceptionally sexy. Recap: We need a way to quickly and efficiently show people how to do things. -An entity that can be revived with the engy skill and trigger an event. -Mines to be made into a map placed item for mappers for a person to defuse -Entity to detect the creation of a building by a player Also, saying that they won't know how to prone or how important crouch jumping is, that's assuming the people are completely retarded. I would rather not be treated like a retard. If they have a half life mod, they've played half life, counter strike, DoD, TF2, L4D or something like that. It's perfectly reasonable to think that they know what crouch jumping is, or how to look up keybindings.
Not their entire skills. You just have a quick thing saying. "This is the engineer, the main class of the game. He has a pistol, an SMG, seismic grenades for taking down enemy buildings, and his build tool. His build tool allows him to build and repair buildings, heal tanks and infantry, as well as upgrading his placeable turrets to level 3 and reviving people, if he takes their respective skills.". Nothing more than that.
we'll see. If I can steal the VMF from keef I'll see if I can make a mockup of what you are talking about.
