ns2 singleplayer campaign
Taggart
Canada Join Date: 2013-10-12 Member: 188668Members
Canada Join Date: 2013-10-12 Member: 188668Members
This has probably already been addressed (sorry for not looking too hard before posting) but I can't help but think of how other RTS games have introduced their players to the game.
The player is slowly introduced to the complexity of the game one mission at a time. As much as I love this game, and I do, a lot, since NS1. I can see how it's very intimidating, especially to take over a command position. To just buy it and hop into the fray, where players chastise them for not doing as their told when the player doesn't even know the basics. A well constructed campaign aimed at teaching the player the basics and even etiquette if possible (pinging for warnings, giving waypoints, following waypoints etc.) would not only help the new players get a better understanding of what they should be doing, and what to expect from the enemy team, but it'll put them into the mood.
I'm sure this is something of a taboo, but if I can make the starcraft comparison, nobody would have played starcraft 2 if the only gameplay available to them was ladder games. Ladder anxiety is a well known thing, and I think that this is exactly what's stifling the new player intake.
It also wouldn't hurt to treat new players more kindly in your games, yes I know they'll lose you the game if they're not doing what they're supposed to, but new players is what a multiplayer game needs to survive.
The player is slowly introduced to the complexity of the game one mission at a time. As much as I love this game, and I do, a lot, since NS1. I can see how it's very intimidating, especially to take over a command position. To just buy it and hop into the fray, where players chastise them for not doing as their told when the player doesn't even know the basics. A well constructed campaign aimed at teaching the player the basics and even etiquette if possible (pinging for warnings, giving waypoints, following waypoints etc.) would not only help the new players get a better understanding of what they should be doing, and what to expect from the enemy team, but it'll put them into the mood.
I'm sure this is something of a taboo, but if I can make the starcraft comparison, nobody would have played starcraft 2 if the only gameplay available to them was ladder games. Ladder anxiety is a well known thing, and I think that this is exactly what's stifling the new player intake.
It also wouldn't hurt to treat new players more kindly in your games, yes I know they'll lose you the game if they're not doing what they're supposed to, but new players is what a multiplayer game needs to survive.
Comments
The campaign/extended training in NS2 could be done under the pretense of a simulation the TSF put together for new recruits, where they practice against each other using virtual approximations of actual alien lifeforms so that trainees can better learn the strengths and weaknesses of their opposition.
There's support for this in the Deluxe Edition artbook where it's established that the TSF uses sophisticated 3D printing technology to print soldiers and equipment into existence in the field and presumably use some kind of synaptic transfer to place the minds of troops into those bodies.
Some story would be nice...