anotherdevil Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Hello all, I am firmly of the belief that there should be some sort of tutorial feature in the final release. But what form of tutorial do you think is best? I think that it should occur because reading these forums gives you some idea of the amount of people who don't immediately get what certain things do, like the accuracy limitations of kneeling, or how to control your aircraft, or the sight limitations of heavy armour, etc. Thought? Happy posting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamkyon Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 (edited) I'm all for a playable rendition of the Iceland Incident. Edited January 15, 2012 by iamkyon That's more like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radister Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 As long as its skip-able I'm fine with it being in the game for others. tutorial that are unskip-able just annoy me when I restart games. But personally I won't use one, i like to learn on the fly (I find the learning part fun) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 If there is one make it a seperate option from "new game" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zinn Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Putting a tutorial in would be a very good idea. As far as games in general go, X-COM (and thus Xenonauts) is a fair bit on the hardcore side and you need some way of knowing these things. That said, a tutorial should probably just be a very basic mission with a couple of aliens that could do a step-by-step thing. For instance, it tells you to go through the door, go to cover, use different shots and such, while explaining the mechanics simply. It should then be possible to go to the in-game wiki and find a mechanics section, where the issues are explained in further detail. In other words, the basic tutorial lets you become acceptably competent, while you can study the wiki to go from "competent" to "expert" with some practice. Most importantly, though, the tutorial MUST be skippable: There's nothing more annoying than wasting precious time, when all you want to do is get going. I'm sure most people here have frowned at Skyrim, ME2 or other games where there's a forced intro/tutorial that essentially goes on forever, considering your knowledge during a second playthrough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OJSlaughter Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 I would make a tutorial mission completely seperate to the main 'New Game' option. Similar to Rome Total War. I also think Tooltips are fine though. I have been learning the hard way (never played X-Com) and tooltips would be appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 I'm for a tutorial that is optional. A checkbox on a new game to play tutorial would probably be useful. The background story of the Iceland Incident would fit nicely, except that you can't actually win that mission and it might put off new players if you throw them into an unwinnable situation. Maybe a simple training mission where you have your starting squad and are up against national guard opponents in a skirmish. No one will be killed off and it will give some bonus exp to the troops of players who do the tutorial. This is on top of pointing out all of the useful buttons etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherdevil Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 Don't forget that tutorials would also have to cover base management and air combat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Yeah you can get introduced to your new assignment by the previous commander. He tells you there is a training mission coming up in a few days and it flashes up on the geoscape when it is ready. He goes on to show you how to equip your men for this mission and assign them to a transport. Air combat with a simulated enemy UFO (another Mig) which generates a simulated crash site. He may also explain that sometimes the training missions don't go as planned so maybe you should complete that new medical bay that has been requisitioned. An introduction to your heads of research and manufacturing and you are pretty much done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 I'm against bonuses for going through the tutorial. Imo it shouldnt be tied to a new game at all, not even through checkboxes. Imo it should be standalone and in chapters, so you can choose which part (geoscape, Ufo crassite, terror mission, night mission, base defense etc.) Possibly even make the tutorial available during a current game without you needing to go back to the startup menu. meaning once you finish the tutorial it goes back to where you were when you opened it. (Wishlist item. I can see it not being worth codeing though) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTuninator Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Yeah you can get introduced to your new assignment by the previous commander.He tells you there is a training mission coming up in a few days and it flashes up on the geoscape when it is ready. He goes on to show you how to equip your men for this mission and assign them to a transport. Air combat with a simulated enemy UFO (another Mig) which generates a simulated crash site. He may also explain that sometimes the training missions don't go as planned so maybe you should complete that new medical bay that has been requisitioned. An introduction to your heads of research and manufacturing and you are pretty much done. Going to second this; well done, and will preserve the "mystery" and fear factor of the aliens for the actual game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherdevil Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 there is no reason that you can't skip Gauddlike's version though, or ignore it and just build that med bay by itself =] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 The only real bonus would be that the starting troops would have completed a single mission more than without the tutorial. If someone needs to do the tutorial then that is a nice little bonus, if they decide to bypass it they will gain the bonus after their first "real" mission anyway. If someone is min-maxing enough to feel they really have to do the tutorial to get that single mission advantage then let them, won't affect my game in the slightest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherdevil Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 yeah if it's your first time playing you probably need all the help they can get. If you want to abuse that... why make it easy/fun to do that again and again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Still id rather have the option to go through the tutorial without starting a new game. Also would difficulty affect the tutorial if its tied to a new game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Doubt it, it is a tutorial for people who are unfamiliar with the game. It will probably be a set of commands that they are to follow that shows them roughly how to command a squad and do the other stuff in the geoscape to get them into a fight. I can't see much reason to start the tutorial when you already have a game on the go. If you decided to play the tutorial you could always just start it and quit when it finished, no one will force you to continue playing once the tutorial is over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTuninator Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 The tutorial should be entirely separate from starting a new game; I don't want to have to dismiss the tutorial popup every time I start a game. Just have a "play tutorial" option at the New Game screen, and have a popup message advising that first-time players do the tutorial. That seems like the most expedient solution to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Dismiss what pop up? The suggestion was to have a small check box that says play tutorial on the new game screen. I don't see much difference personally between having it play at the start of a new game or being able to start it separately. Apart I guess from any progress not carrying over to the main game. Either way works for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherdevil Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 plus if you wanted to go back over some information you can always check the manual, electronic or not. Tutorial is more of a visual hand on way of explaining things like crouching makes you harder to hit, but also makes enemies who are behind cover harder to hit too, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTuninator Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Dismiss what pop up?The suggestion was to have a small check box that says play tutorial on the new game screen. I don't see much difference personally between having it play at the start of a new game or being able to start it separately. Apart I guess from any progress not carrying over to the main game. Either way works for me. Ah, if that was the proposal, that works fine for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sathra Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 I like Gauddlike's proposal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beagle Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 I like Gauddlike's idea of a simulated training mission for a lot of reasons. I think it's in keeping with the atmosphere well, apart from all the obvious stuff of it being a good way to teach the player all the different tools at his disposal. I had a similar idea a couple nights ago. I was playing X-Com and had just come off a big dramatic campaign loss, and decided to try a new style of playing. During which, there were a few points where I'd wished there was a little sandbox where I could try out some things, like seeing how far you could throw a grenade in the low-roof environment of a UFO. What if I had a 3-man assault team, 3 men to cover, and a heavy weapons team - how would that work in this environment? What if I give the assault team HE charges? What if one of them dies? Following on from that, I thought it would be neat to have said sandbox be a little mockup of a UFO/Building/whatever inside your base, which you could run through at any time using as many/as few of your soldiers/vehicles as you select. This would let veteran players experiment to their hearts content with new tactics, let new players get to grips with the control scheme and test weapons in a non-threatening environment, and be pretty cool (at least in my opinion) to boot. To get an idea of what an in-base mockup could look like, I immediately thought of the tutorial level from Call of Duty 4, the plywood cargo ship. That level also has a firing range, and if you've never played it before, you can check it out via Youtube and to see what I'm talking about.Following on from the idea, there's a couple places you could supplement it that I can see immediately - all a "firing range" would need is a few little plywood targets to test weapons on at various ranges, and if you allowed the player to place those same plywood targets to their hearts content in the UFO mockup course, you could develop/test/perfect UFO breaching techniques for a variety of situations. The second place I could see it being more complex is in the number of mock ups available to you - you could start with a basic building to clear, and then as you discovered each new UFO type through crash site missions, you could be given a new mock up of that UFO type - so when you clear a little scout, your boys build you a plywood scout to play with, and so on. You could probably save time/assets by putting the tutorial in there as well - stick new players in the mock up room and you could use it to run them through movement, firing, and any number of tactics. Of course, if it's the design intent that players should only be able to learn stuff like this in battle, then this all runs counter to that, but if that's not on the checklist, I could see this being fun, useful, and in adding to the atmosphere - particularly with the immersive style Xenonauts is going for with its interface design and with the addition of stuff like Soldier Training. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherdevil Posted January 22, 2012 Author Share Posted January 22, 2012 I can see it being fun, but having the player set up everything seems like a bit too much coding to allow that. Perhaps though the plywood mock ups could be randomly placed (strategically) by the computer each time? Otherwise I like it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 A target dummy enemy type without the ability to move or shoot would be all you need. The program would just place them like a normal enemy. I would prefer to have national guardsmen npc's playing the opfor though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinetree Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 It will also be a good excuse to bring back the Evil Alien Shed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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