Improving the Tutorials

[lamsbro]

After watching a couple people play through the tutorial I have come away with the impression that it does a very poor job of representing how fun the game actually is. Currently the tutorial works as follows:

-a new player logs in
-they are taken to the "2 min pilot certification program"
Task 1: follow dots through the hoops
---the player is instructed on how to turn left and right
Task 2: controlling throttle
---the player is instructed on how to speed up and slow down
Task 3: follow dots through slightly more difficult hoops
---repeat of Task 1, but a little harder
Task 4: stall recovery
---player instructed to fly to top of map, stall, then recover
Task 5: another set of hoops, even more difficult
--repeat of Task 2, but a little harder
Task 6: stall recovery again
---exact same as Task 4
Task 7: another set of hoops
--slightly harder than last one
Task 8: kill bots

As you may notice there is a lot of repetition of some very boring tasks, and no obvious way to skip through these tasks. The two players I watched both learned the basic controls within the first 3 tasks and then spent the next 3 tasks bored. The constant interruption of text boxes and switching from task to task also made the experience less enjoyable. The most important and complicated aspect of the game, the fighting, received relatively little attention (just one task).

I think the goal of the tutorial should be to let a new player play and enjoy the game as soon as possible. The main obstacles are learning how to control and use one's plane, and figuring out how the interface works (ideally the interface will be self explanatory). To accomplish this I recommend:

Throughout the tutorials a label should be visible that says press Escape at any time to jump into a real game. When you do it takes you directly to the server list.

When a new player joins they are taken to Tutorial 1.

Tutorial 1: flying skills

---player is shown a picture or video of the 4 arrow keys with each key labeled and explaining what it does. The graphic sits in the corner of the screen throughout the tutorial so the player can refer to it as they fly

---the player is launched into the air and asked to go through a few hoops as fast as they can (no blue dots, players are free to fly where and how they want), the task is completed when they have done every hoop, if they crash they just spawn again. A timer keeps track of how fast they go.

---When completed the player is given enough experience to get the next perk, they are taken directly to the plane edit screen and given a message like the following:
As you level up you unlock new perks and planes. Click on the plane you want to configure and select your new perk. In the future you can make changes to your plane while you're waiting to respawn by pressing the "E" key or clicking this button in the top right part of you screen.

Tutorial 2: combat

---quick overview of your plane, the Loopy, and its weapon systems, Ex:
Your plane is the Loopy. It is fast and maneuverable but fragile. It is currently equiped with homing rockets that can be launched with the "F" key, and EMP stun grenades that fire with the "D" key. As you gain more flight experience you will unlock new perks and new planes.

---added to the newbie cheat graphic are the f and d keys, with labels explaining what they do

---the player is instructed to shoot down a couple bot planes (loopys, or biplanes, save something for the imagination)

---on completion the player is asked whether they would like to redo the tutorial or play with real people.

The Newbie Cheat Graphic:
A new player has a cheat graphic in the corner of their screen that shoes pictures of the arrow keys and the f,d, and s keys, and labels describing what they do. They can disable this graphic by clicking a little X.

Tips from an Ace system:
When a player dies a "Tips" text box is displayed that explains some aspect of the game. For example:
"Tip: there are two game types in Altitude, free for all (FFA) and team base destroy (TBD). In FFA its every plane for itself, in TBD two teams fight to destroy the other's base with bomb powerups."
or
"Tip: the enemy's base can only be damaged by the bomb powerup"
or
"Tip: you can chat with other players by pressing the enter key, typing in a message, and then pressing enter again"
or
"Tip: you can team chat by pressing the right shift key"
or
"Tip: when a plane is shot down it leaves behind a health pack that heals 40% of damage"
or
"Tip: you can protect your base from a falling bomb by crashing into the bomb"
or
"Tip: if a plane is carrying a powerup when it dies that powerup can be picked up by other planes"
or
"Tip: you can call for a vote to change the current map by pressing enter and typing /vote changemap <map>"

The Plane Descriptor Box:
When selecting a plane or perk a description box appears explaining how that plane or perk works.

[lamster]

I really like these ideas. Anyone else have any ideas for spicing up and streamlining the tutorial?

[Snowsickle]

It's only three posts down but I'm going to repost this here just for the sake of consolidating tutorial ideas.

Tutorial Specific:

I feel like a lot of new players are struggling with actual gameplay after coming out of the tutorial. Some suggestions for more indepth training:

• Throttle is a huge aspect of dogfighting/navigating tight spaces; perhaps add a short ring course that forces players to dethrottle to make the tight turns... this would probably require a tutorial restricted to a certain plane.
  
• Comment that team games revolve around the control of the 'big bomb' item, and that planes are typically very inferior to it.
  
• Perhaps individual combat training with each plane, maybe make these selectable subtutorials. Basically an explanation of the use of a weapon, and a setup situation where it can be used to get a kill. Dunno, this might require more advanced bot AI or just creative map design.
  
• Emphasis on teamplay aspect of TBD, working with teammates to escort the bomb. Again might require some advanced AI, but a simple 'escort a bomb carrier' tutorial minigame would definitely be cool.
  
• Simple tutorial on customizing planes/how the plane menu works. It's not completely intuitive and could be stepped through pretty easily with text bubbles.
  
• Afterburner use: a course with a time limit that forces you to use afterburner, but stop towards the end and kill an enemy to complete the course.
  
• Another idea for tight turning, have some health packs/rings in narrow passages or extremely close to terrain and have people try to collect all of them without dying.
  

I realize it's probably a bad idea to have a tutorial that seems to run on forever, so it would probably be pretty beneficial to make sub-tutorials for more advanced tactics. Either way, having the information and some decent practice for new players seems like it would definitely help.

I feel like there's a lot that can be done but most of it would have to be carefully tuned and scripted, which is probably a ridiculous amount of effort for somewhat questionable gain. (Exactly how much should be included in the tutorial, and how much improvement is better left as a function of playing the game?)

I'd definitely support more gameplay-relevant tutorial sections though. Bombing a base, catching a bomb, etc. Also I feel like rolling hills is a bit bland, even for new players. I would support changing environments based on the tutorial task at hand, or just a somewhat more complex map in general. Learning to fly in an open space is fairly effortless, and when new players complete the tutorial and join a game on a somewhat complex map like middleground, suicides seem to pop up left and right. (Judging this by the current new wave of players.)

Anyway.

I really like the tip idea, TF2 does this and even WoW does it on loading screens and in both games I've actually learned some useful tidbits from these. I'd rather see more advanced ideas in tips than what Lamsbro posted, stuff like "As the explodet, you can perform a 'mine jump' by laying a mine as you are touching the terrain". More along the lines of gameplay/skill hints than elementary stuff.

[Blank]

Lamsbro's post sums up my own feelings. Tutorial should be short and sweet. Just enough to get players to understand the basics. I don't think they need to be handheld to learn how to pull 'unique' moves and ****, a "tip box" or something on death would be great.

As far as game modes are concerned, assuming more get added, you might consider putting up a little blurp at the start of the match/when a player first joins describing the basic objective(s?) of the map. IE, FFA you can just say something like "every pilot for himself!" or in TBD (which should seriously be renamed, because it's NOT team-based deathmatch.) "use big bombs to destroy their base!", etc. Best place to put this would probably be on the menu prior to plane selection, it should also be visible every time on death.

BTW, plane selection screen could use work. QP CR and whatever are far from "clear" descriptions of what purpose they serve. I still have no idea what CR stands for.... something random ? :|

[Snowsickle]

Originally Posted by Blank

(which should seriously be renamed, because it's NOT team-based deathmatch.)

Pretty sure someone told me it stood for "team base destroy" at some point. Not that it changes the fact that it needs to be renamed. "Team Demolition" or something is a whole lot easier to say and makes more sense.

[Blank]

Originally Posted by Snowsickle

Pretty sure someone told me it stood for "team base destroy" at some point. Not that it changes the fact that it needs to be renamed. "Team Demolition" or something is a whole lot easier to say and makes more sense.

I was thinking team-based objective, but team base destroy sort of makes sense I guess :E

[DiogenesDog]

It's "Team Base Destruction", assuming he's using the same name I did when I wrote the old version's unofficial manual.

[Ferret]

Originally Posted by lamster

I really like these ideas. Anyone else have any ideas for spicing up and streamlining the tutorial?

Peppers and a racing fin.

Anyway I watched my friend play it after I showed him the game and the "okay now do it a second time" thing got a little ridiculous. Bombing a base should definitely be included, perhaps with some kind of pretty diagram out of a high school physics book explaining that horizontal velocity is conserved after release. Add to that some kind of set up similar to city where you have a hoop that's required to fly through low to lob the bomb through a hole.

And tutorials are nice but if you end up with anything too unwieldy you run the risk of people skipping things all together, I'm not sure if it's clear, but if it isn't you might want to make sure that "free level 3 upon completion" carrot is dangled out there.

[xdooma]

I maybe have some little ideas....
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-Idea 1:

As a new account is created they can choose :1 I want a tutorial 2: I dont want a tutorial, when they choose 1 they can choose another thing, 1: offline tutorial 2: online tutorial
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Offline tutorial:
The offline tutorial is the same as the concurent one but 'upgraded'
Idea 2 can be used here
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Online tutorial:
A online player can sign up as teacher and then he/she can teach the new player how to fly and stuff, this can be done in a 2 player map so others cannot distrub them.

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-Idea 2:

Just remove the Tutorial and create maps for diffirent level classes:

-Class 1 'Newbies' lvl's 1-5
-Class 2 'Student' lvl's 5-8
-Class 3 'Pilot' lvl's 8-all lvl's

Class 1 cannot join class 2 and 3 , class 2 cannot join 1 and 3 and class 3 can only join class 3.
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I hope this helps, Happy flying!

[DiogenesDog]

Agree that a shorter tutorial would be nice, then maybe a more advanced tutorial that gets unlocked at level 8 or something?

[lamsbro]

The new tutorial is a huge improvement over the old one, but still needs improvement. Here's how it works:

1) You fly through hoops
2) You try out afterburner
3) You experience a stall
4) When you stall the screen freezes, press a key to continue
5) After you break stall there is a strange transition to another hoop section (not quite a full transition, a little buggy. If after you stall you shoot towards the next spawn point you will see it when you spawn)
6) Do another set of hoops
7) Hard Break
8) Forced to edit a plane
9) Shoot a bunch of bots flying in circles
10) Screen freezes each time something new is unlocked

Suggestions:
Give them a brief overview of the tutorial process so they know how much longer they have to go and what to expect. Something like the following might be good:
Welcome to pilot training, where you'll learn how to control your plane, fire your weapons, and shoot down enemies.

Don't automatically start their plane, let them read the intro to the tutorial at their leisure, and press any key when they're ready to go. Make them take off from a base perhaps or give them a count down till launch.

Frame the tutorial in a way that gives it meaning. Instead of "fly through the hoops" it should be "show us your piloting skills by completing this obstacle course as fast as you can". Put a prominent timer on the screen and show their completion of the course (8 of 10 hoops completed, etc).

After they complete the stall recovery don't delete their plane then move them to the start of a new obstacle course, instead give them something new. Maybe shoot down some "dummy" planes that come flying in a straight line, or some floating balloons. This allows them to continue practicing their control skills and also to try some basic combat skills. Again track progress (ex. 3 of 5 balloons destroyed).

When they level up make sure the text that explains how to use the "Edit" menu remains visible when the "edit" menu is opened. Perhaps that whole UI should have some good explanatory text with it automatically. Don't force them to equip the hull, just make sure they have been told how. You don't want someone getting stuck in the tutorial cuz they can't figure out a non-essential task in their first 30 seconds of the game.

Consider completely removing the current combat stage where you shoot randomly colored planes flying in circles. Players have gained the most important skills they need already.

If you do keep it consider the following: get rid of all the screen freezes from doing new stuff, it is very tiring when the screen freezes each time you pick up a new item or get a bar. The information can be displayed off to the side without freezing the action, but I would consider getting rid of much of the information anyway. Too much stuff is being thrown at them in a random and meaningless way, make only 1 item spawn, and only 1 type of enemy plane to shoot.

Also, consider giving the combat stage discrete goals and programatically increasing the difficulty. For example: round 1 of combat stage might be you have to destroy 2 very dumb planes. Round 2 might be destroy 2 slightly less dumb planes, etc. Don't put a hard cap on the xp they get from this, just encourage them to jump into a real server (maybe even a button they can push that automatically matches them to a server with players, if such a server is up).

Mix up the scenerey, you don't want the player thinking the whole game is this one relatively ugly level.

Edit: Maybe both hoops and the combat level could be programmatically generated mini games. With hoops the goal is to get through the hoops course as fast as possible. With combat the goal is to kill as many uber bots as possible.