Tutorial Construct

[bonifarz]

I have tried my best to assemble a tutorial course where all relevant moves can be learned and practiced in time trial mode. My goal is to make it as clear and intuitive as possible, with plenty of instructions where needed and visual clues to help new players whenever possible. The tutorial covers: basic movement and jumps, dashing, high and long jumps, vaulting, impulse count, vertical and horizontal wallrunning, walljumps, wallkicks and powerslides.

This map is by no means finished and polished, but it is playable and i appreciate constructive comments, especially from you guys as follows:

New players: This tutorial is for you, so if this looks interesting, please give me feedback about parts that are to easy, to frustrating, unclear, boring or just .... useless. Also: Does this help after all?

Map makers: This tutorial does hardly have any eye candy, as i focused on gameplay. If you have a suggestion for better texturing, lighting, particles, decorative geometry changes (un-/clipping) etc, feel free to leave a comment and/or an attachment with your modifications to the map.

Runners: Since I use teleports instead of death material, the chances are high that i missed several shortcuts that should be fixed.Also, let me know if explanations and/or obstacles for some missing movement techniques should be added or if you disagree with the setup how a certain move is presented. Do you think a tutorial should also contain sections about slopes and pushers?

Native speakers: The language is rather poor and I am not sure whether the hints are always clear. Feel free to paste improvements to the hints here or attach a modified cfg file if you like to.

Thanks again for your feedback and have fun!

[TristamK]

ok . i try it . i will post all suggestions later because i don't have time for this moment . Teleports in some places work isn't good . Also map can look better , yes ....

[greaserpirate]

Good, but as a tutorial it could use some work.

I really don't like the teleport system. Since you can't see them, you have no clue where the teleports are, and sometimes they're placed really badly, especially where they're placed to discourage certain behaviour. IMO, teleports should only be there for catching players who fall. If you want to prevent the player from going somewhere or doing something, you should have a clearly visible hazard. It's really frustrating to see an obstacle and think "Oh hey, I see this way around it", only to get zapped back without any warning. Also, there are several instances where teleports move you backwards through the map so you have to redo certain stages to get to your latest point. (one of them was at the end of the wallrunning stage, but I lost track of the others)

On the other hand, the tutorial interface was really good. The green instructors are easy to notice, and their instructions are good; I even learned some things I didn't know about changing the angle of your wallkicks. The only problems I noticed were a few minor spelling errors ("to" vs. "too" and "tab" instead of "tap") and a tiny bit of confusion at the impulse launching and power sliding parts, but besides that it's all good.

I'm not sure about this being a good first tutorial, though. It's fairly simple and straightforward, but it needs to be even simpler and easier to be thoroughly idiot-proof. Tutorials have a big burden to carry in that respect, because they have to be simple and easy for everyone, regardless of noob level. What might be simple and pleasantly challenging to you or me could be totally frustrating to someone who's just started playing. If they get even a bit confused or impatient, there's a chance they won't finish the tutorial and won't play time-trial. In particular, the part with the red arrows, the huge leaps, the vertical wall at the end of the wallrunning section, and the wallkicking part could be potential stumbling blocks. The second and third green jump arrow are also a bit tricky without using parkour or looking slightly up, but you could easily fix this by telling them beforehand, adding a ladder, or lowering the platforms.
However, for the most part it's straightforward, and really informative. As a time-trial map for refining your skills, it is really good, and I had fun playing it.

In general, Twitch shooters have a bad reputation of being hard on beginners, so I think it's great that you're making this! The more we reach out to beginners, the wider our audience will be. Maybe in the future there could be a tutorial for weapons and strategy too...

[bonifarz]

Thanks for the detailed and helpful feedback, greaserpirate.
I have to agree with most points you make, and yes, this will take some more work.

I really don't like the teleport system.
...
IMO, teleports should only be there for catching players who fall.

This point is important. I thought death material and frequent respawns are potentially frustrating, so I avoided using any of that, but the situations you mention can be much worse. Death material does not only make it MUCH easier to block the shortcuts, but it adds clearly needed feedback to let players know that they tried the "wrong" thing.

... a tiny bit of confusion at the impulse launching and power sliding parts, but besides that it's all good.

It is well possible I use the wrong terminology, or that I explain some move that turns out to be a glitch

Tutorials have a big burden to carry in that respect, because they have to be simple and easy for everyone, regardless of noob level. What might be simple and pleasantly challenging to you or me could be totally frustrating to someone who's just started playing.

Very true. I hoped that if only the instructions and clues are clear enough, concerns of "difficulty" become less important. I want the player to get a feeling for the width and height covered by most moves. That means that some moves must be executed rather precisely, which can lead to frustration.

If they get even a bit confused or impatient, there's a chance they won't finish the tutorial and won't play time-trial.

I hope that players can learn quite a bit even if they don't finish the course, e.g. when skipping the wallkicking and sliding part. You don't need these in many time trial courses. The high jump (two red arrows) might a be a problem in this regard (early, rather useless and frustrating?).

The second and third green jump arrow are also a bit tricky without using parkour or looking slightly up

I thought of vertical jumps near green arrows (releasing the W key), so looking up should not matter. Proper timing is probably the difficult part here.

However, for the most part it's straightforward, and really informative. As a time-trial map for refining your skills, it is really good, and I had fun playing it.

I am glad to hear you had some fun while taking the time to look into this.
Thanks.

[bonifarz]

*Version update*

As discussed in the previous posts, teleports are no longer used to block shortcuts, instead there are some laser traps that add a bit more color. There are also plenty of other, minor changes, such as splitting the hints (gui) in a separate cfg file. The problem remains that this course is probably too challenging for new players, so it should maybe be considered an in depth guide rather than a tutorial. I really don't know if the difficulty matters, but there is at least a clue now about the /gamespeed variable

Suggestions and comments are welcome.

[ballist1c]

Downloading now

[quintux_v]

I'm extremely glad to see this, downloading now.

before I forget, have you mentioned what exactly does and does not rely on impulse energy in this? I've always been kind of unsure whether wallrunning required impulse energy or not, so that's probably something to point out.

In general, Twitch shooters have a bad reputation of being hard on beginners, so I think it's great that you're making this! The more we reach out to beginners, the wider our audience will be. Maybe in the future there could be a tutorial for weapons and strategy too...

Exactly! +1.

[bonifarz]

before I forget, have you mentioned what exactly does and does not rely on impulse energy in this? I've always been kind of unsure whether wallrunning required impulse energy or not, so that's probably something to point out.

I think there is some emphasis that wallrunning is not a continuous move, but consists of repeated impulse pushes. Earlier it is stated that each impulse move consumes energy and adds to the impulse count, which means you cannot execute more than six impulse moves without touching ground. You are right, it shout be noted that the only non-impulse move here is jumping while moving on the floor (but not while sliding).

I am not sure about a weapon tutorial, because most aspects of weapon usage are highly dynamical, while for a tutorial, you would rather use turrets or grunts caged in aiclip - you cannot learn much from that. If you need static information, the wiki is very useful
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/r ... le=Weapons
and for in depth mechanics/ understanding weapon stats, it is very useful as well. (Thanks for this, Arand!)
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/r ... eapon_Vars