Author Topic: Tutorials....  (Read 6078 times)

Offline Misery

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Re: Tutorials....
« Reply #15 on: September 01, 2016, 08:57:13 am »
- Modelling learner: Not really sure what to call it, but this is the guy who learns by watching someone else do it first correctly (or even incorrectly), and then replicating it to see if they get the same result.
* The problem: There is no method in AI War that allows you to just watch it happen first before trying it yourself. If I want to learn how to gate raid, I just have to try it myself first. I can't see how its done, or what kind of effect it has until I do it.


Yeah, that's a really good point and one of the biggest issues for me.

I mean, some games are okay to learn by pure experimentation.   But if I look at a really complicated game, that tends to be very different.  Like Dwarf Fortress for example.  I have no bloody clue how anyone could learn that game WITHOUT tutorials.  Trying to experiment-learn in that game is an exercise in futility and frustration.

And that's what I've typically found with this game too.  Like, I frankly have no idea what a gate raid even IS.   For all I know, it's something I've done before but didn't know the term for it.  But maybe it ISNT something I've done before, and despite that it might seem basic to some players, it wont have occurred to me because there's some concept behind it that I cant really catch without seeing it explained somewhere.   

Applies to ships, too.  There's plenty of times where I look at a ship, see the stats and description, and I'm thinking "Sooo.... what exactly should I be doing with this one?"   Obviously the most basic ships are really obvious in what they do.  But a lot of others?  Not really.  Hell, I started a new game today, and I started with a unit I've never used before.  These hydra things.  I frankly haven't the foggiest freaking clue what strategic advantage they offer me.  What their best use or purpose is.   Same with the Neinzul starship, I haven't really used that much because I'm not sure what to use it FOR.  A lot of units in the game just seem obscure to me in some ways.  If I can see someone playing the game, and maybe see how they use these units, that sort of thing is when I'll have that moment of "Ah-ha!  I get it now, I see the potential for this thing, I understand the basic concept behind it" and then from there I can come up with my own tricks.  But as it currently is, I just throw confusing units in randomly, not really getting too much knowledge of their use despite experimenting, and also knowing that I'm probably using them very inefficiently.  It's often easy to understand WHAT a ship does, but I find it very hard to grasp what kinds of situations it actually has a reason to be in. 

Again, to many players this stuff is obvious, but I still have a great deal to learn about this game, and the lack of tutorials (and near-total lack of even YouTube videos) makes it a very slooooowwww process for me.  Which is frustrating.   And the blasted Wiki isn't much help either, really...    Granted the ship stuff would be helped with more in-game info on each ship beyond just their tooltip, but the general stuff I'm saying here definitely applies to tutorials too.

Offline kasnavada

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Re: Tutorials....
« Reply #16 on: September 01, 2016, 09:07:23 am »
I proposed that there (probably wrong place) :

https://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,19003.msg205644.html#msg205644

Basically once the standard tutorial is done, the games warns new every time a new mechanic is "activated", more or less.
This allows for late game and later additions to the tutorial, and helps in building player skill. I don't think it's that complicated to place into a game too.

 

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