Teaching Newbies
Javert
Join Date: 2003-04-30 Member: 15954Members
Join Date: 2003-04-30 Member: 15954Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Stories teaching newcomers</div> Today I was at H20 and we had a newb named Ic3. First off, he did the right thing by proclaiming himself one instead of rambo-ing off. So the team told him the basics (we were aliens btw): not going gorge, not frontal rushing, how to evolve, and each of the upgrades. He proceeded to evolve to a lerk (someone told him not to, but I said what the heck, go ahead and try) and did very well, umbra-ing the fades as we told him to and getting bites here and there. We won.
Next round (alien again), another newb came, name: Kevin. I was about to leave, but told I him "listen to Ic3, he's new too". He said ok. Didn't stay around after but I feel immensely proud how newcomers can be fun to play with (unlike others I've seen) when they use their heads with team guidance. Two newcomers to the NS family. (I try not to use the term "noobs".)
Share some stories of teaching newbies who cared, fought, and suceeded!
Go NS!
Next round (alien again), another newb came, name: Kevin. I was about to leave, but told I him "listen to Ic3, he's new too". He said ok. Didn't stay around after but I feel immensely proud how newcomers can be fun to play with (unlike others I've seen) when they use their heads with team guidance. Two newcomers to the NS family. (I try not to use the term "noobs".)
Share some stories of teaching newbies who cared, fought, and suceeded!
Go NS!
Comments
Oh, btw:
Newbie: One who is new to the game, lacking in the skill and understanding of seasoned players.
n00b: (derogatory) 1. One who is new to the game, but not giving this the necessary consideration, ignoring advice and common sense.
2. One who is not new to the game but behaves foolishly anyway because "it is my game and I can play it any way I want".
I was about to yell at him to ungorge, but instead asked him if he needed help. He did. I explained to him what he was supposed to do, showed him around the map, etc.
He ended up getting us a second hive and we ate all of the marines.
It was fun. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
You sir, need some cinnomen crunch.
And yes, intelligent and responsive newbies are cool as sin, theres something about teaching somone about your obsession that just feels soo right and soo wrong. Poor buggers.
LOL. My student was also from CS. He said he got bored. Go Figure!
Then go to a game, enter aliens, and wander around the map, watch thing etc. After the first game he propably have much questions. Then he should go back and read the manual and try to find answers to things which he still dont know. After that, back to the pubs <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Works usually wery well, at least if the guy isn't a 12 years old cs player <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
- jtm
So i say "yes, bind a key to giveres".
They respond by saying, "how do i give the res?"
I say "bind a key to giveres"
<b>Five Minutes Later</b>
I say "Can i have your res"
They say "Oh, lemme give you my res after i bind!"
I say "*sigh*, bind a key to giveres"
they say "oh, i thought it was 'give res' "
That's how my n00b teaching works
Anyways, my first game I just used quickstart, landed in a 2v2, and sadly... dominated as a skulk. They must've been no00oooooOOOoober than me; at least I have my CS background to help. My next game was a different (And much more informative) experience. I came into a game, joined as alien, when they already had a 2nd hive up. I asked a few simple questions (Are these MY resources, or the TEAMS resources? Can I spend em?) and got more than a few quick tips. Someone advised me to stay as skulk and run with him, as he was doing some, as he called em, 'keep em ****' runs. I followed along and got probably 2 kills for every death. Each time one of us died, the other just went suicidal so we could join up. Turns out he just got the game 4-5 days ago, and his friend who turned him onto it told him this is the best way to learn everything. He was quite correct. I skulked all night on cage, hera, and nothing, learning those maps well enough that I don't *always* have to follow (But I still do in the beginning, because I don't know the fastest routes yet).
Anywho, I eventually made it up to Onos because everyone else was doing it, helped smash up the marines last outpost and had a grand old time.
Yesterday I tried marines for the first time and I was hooked for good... the level of teamwork is astonishing! You just *cannot* win unless you work as a team! I also was lucky enough to get a very intelligent comm who made great use of WPs (which I haven't seen many people do yet...) as he guided us along, step by step, as we slowly hemmed the aliens in then finished them off. In the end, the game deteriorated a bit as our comm was brilliantly OVERcautious, and we were, as I believe it is called 'terraforming' way too much. I like that term, the first time I heard it out of context I knew what it meant .
Today was a mixed bag of games, I enjoyed alot of fade'ing and learned the joys of heavy armor as well, grabbing somehow more wins than losses for both aliens and humans. Most enjoyable. I even rather successfully gorged for two games today, recieving alot of 'thx schub' (I go by Schubert) or 'ty gorg' as I healed up and layed siege with offensive and defensive structures... since I'd already taken 5-6 RTs before the marines had an extra 2. BWAHAHAHA! OTs may suck, but let's see your split band of 2 marines try to take a couple with a defense tower out. ANYWAYS... I moved off some of those servers and moved up to some more advanced ones where I'm getting nailed pretty bad again. I enjoy that more, for now. I've yet to try my hand at commander, and don't think I will indefinately as I don't have voice communication and I probably won't (USB headsets are about 80$!!!) anytime soon, but I don't mind at all so long as the Comm keeps us informed!
Anyways, my first game I just used quickstart, landed in a 2v2, and sadly... dominated as a skulk. They must've been no00oooooOOOoober than me; at least I have my CS background to help. My next game was a different (And much more informative) experience. I came into a game, joined as alien, when they already had a 2nd hive up. I asked a few simple questions (Are these MY resources, or the TEAMS resources? Can I spend em?) and got more than a few quick tips. Someone advised me to stay as skulk and run with him, as he was doing some, as he called em, 'keep em ****' runs. I followed along and got probably 2 kills for every death. Each time one of us died, the other just went suicidal so we could join up. Turns out he just got the game 4-5 days ago, and his friend who turned him onto it told him this is the best way to learn everything. He was quite correct. I skulked all night on cage, hera, and nothing, learning those maps well enough that I don't *always* have to follow (But I still do in the beginning, because I don't know the fastest routes yet).
Anywho, I eventually made it up to Onos because everyone else was doing it, helped smash up the marines last outpost and had a grand old time.
Yesterday I tried marines for the first time and I was hooked for good... the level of teamwork is astonishing! You just *cannot* win unless you work as a team! I also was lucky enough to get a very intelligent comm who made great use of WPs (which I haven't seen many people do yet...) as he guided us along, step by step, as we slowly hemmed the aliens in then finished them off. In the end, the game deteriorated a bit as our comm was brilliantly OVERcautious, and we were, as I believe it is called 'terraforming' way too much. I like that term, the first time I heard it out of context I knew what it meant .
Today was a mixed bag of games, I enjoyed alot of fade'ing and learned the joys of heavy armor as well, grabbing somehow more wins than losses for both aliens and humans. Most enjoyable. I even rather successfully gorged for two games today, recieving alot of 'thx schub' (I go by Schubert) or 'ty gorg' as I healed up and layed siege with offensive and defensive structures... since I'd already taken 5-6 RTs before the marines had an extra 2. BWAHAHAHA! OTs may suck, but let's see your split band of 2 marines try to take a couple with a defense tower out. ANYWAYS... I moved off some of those servers and moved up to some more advanced ones where I'm getting nailed pretty bad again. I enjoy that more, for now. I've yet to try my hand at commander, and don't think I will indefinately as I don't have voice communication and I probably won't (USB headsets are about 80$!!!) anytime soon, but I don't mind at all so long as the Comm keeps us informed! <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Posts like this make the day for us veterans. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Gradually you just learn by yourself. I asked thousands of questions, of course, all of which were answered politely and maturely. I was amazed, being a Counter-Strike convert, wondering why no one called me 'n00b' when my score was 2-9 as a Skulk, why no one called me 'h4x0r' about 5 games later when I was a better Skulk with 10-3...
It was pretty amazing, to say the least. Now, I always try to teach newbies. Oh, sure, every now and then, the real kind of 'n00b' wanders in, refuses to learn anything, and I still try to patiently teach them, until they curse at me or something. But generally, I help everyone, I mean, say I help someone. That someone feels good that someone has helped them, and since that person is a pro they can't really repay them, so they can by teaching another one. That 'grandchild' of the first one feels the same way, so he teaches another!
Eventually there will be no more newbies. Eventually.
Comm - "GET TO NO NAME, NOW!"
Me - "I don't know where no name is, can you give me a waypoint?"
Comm - "OMG! YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE NO NAME IS!"
I don't respond. A couple of minutes pass without him saying anything. And then....
Comm - "GET TO NO NAME, NOW!"
If I only knew how to eject....
But then I think of the quote, "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for the rest of his life."
I can't recall who, but there was some guy on the new players forum who was offering teaching people how to command on his server. He ran a few sessions for a weekend or two, and from the positive response he got, I'm sure some more would be useful.
Today, after some clan scrims, I turned my server back to a pub, and was idling in the ready room with some clan members and friends, looking to fill it. After about 5 minutes, a guy named "noob" jumps on and immediately goes marines (nobody was even in a team). I decided we didn't have enough people for an exciting battle, so me and another guy taught noob some of the basics of commanding.
It's really the contributions of the players and community that bring newbies into the game. Mostly it's friends teaching friends, but there are always those players who want to learn and ask questions and I find that mostly the community is open to teaching.
Exemple : nancy. Seeing that the team was wandering out of the base I went comm just to build a backup IP , jumped out of the chair and built it. A newbie (not NS player though) walked by , stared at me building , then jumped in the CC. I got moderately angry and furiously spammed F6 to force him to justify himself or at least give waypoints.
He dropped an observatory , then later a TF. So now the whole team was cussing him. People told him to watch others comm before commanding , I told him to not hijack other's command... to practice offline ect. Quite a harsh tutorial if you ask me.
With no relocation , we weren't going far... so we had to eject him , but anyway the game was already decided , with fades soon visiting our base like japanese tourists.
Just before the game ended , he said "sorry for bad commanding ;-) my first time"
Newbies... ask BEFORE doing anything.
You made mention of practicing comm offline, which is what I've really wanted to do. Unfortunately, I can't *seem* to as when I host my own game or go into an empty server, I can't start until there are players on both teams. Is there a way to bypass this?
yes it does
yes it does <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Agreed.
And hell my first games were almost the same.
One good advice if you don't know the game: Create a homeserver and test all alienlifeforms/marinearmors and so on. You will learn fast without getting a "OMG YOU MORON"
Tyrain, even after I did the conversions that's pretty cheap: Is the headset ps2 or USB? my ps2 headset was only 20$, but last year I got a new computer and I can't use that anymore. To get a new headset would require a great thinning of my wallet.
<!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
*Sniff, sniff
Beautiful... <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Oh, and didn't there used to be some mentor<->newbie program with NS with certified mentors teaching others the game? Heard of it, but haven't seen it.
Oh well, I know we vets do enough. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Anyways, my first game I just used quickstart, landed in a 2v2, and sadly... dominated as a skulk. They must've been no00oooooOOOoober than me; at least I have my CS background to help. My next game was a different (And much more informative) experience. I came into a game, joined as alien, when they already had a 2nd hive up. I asked a few simple questions (Are these MY resources, or the TEAMS resources? Can I spend em?) and got more than a few quick tips. Someone advised me to stay as skulk and run with him, as he was doing some, as he called em, 'keep em ****' runs. I followed along and got probably 2 kills for every death. Each time one of us died, the other just went suicidal so we could join up. Turns out he just got the game 4-5 days ago, and his friend who turned him onto it told him this is the best way to learn everything. He was quite correct. I skulked all night on cage, hera, and nothing, learning those maps well enough that I don't *always* have to follow (But I still do in the beginning, because I don't know the fastest routes yet).
Anywho, I eventually made it up to Onos because everyone else was doing it, helped smash up the marines last outpost and had a grand old time.
Yesterday I tried marines for the first time and I was hooked for good... the level of teamwork is astonishing! You just *cannot* win unless you work as a team! I also was lucky enough to get a very intelligent comm who made great use of WPs (which I haven't seen many people do yet...) as he guided us along, step by step, as we slowly hemmed the aliens in then finished them off. In the end, the game deteriorated a bit as our comm was brilliantly OVERcautious, and we were, as I believe it is called 'terraforming' way too much. I like that term, the first time I heard it out of context I knew what it meant .
Today was a mixed bag of games, I enjoyed alot of fade'ing and learned the joys of heavy armor as well, grabbing somehow more wins than losses for both aliens and humans. Most enjoyable. I even rather successfully gorged for two games today, recieving alot of 'thx schub' (I go by Schubert) or 'ty gorg' as I healed up and layed siege with offensive and defensive structures... since I'd already taken 5-6 RTs before the marines had an extra 2. BWAHAHAHA! OTs may suck, but let's see your split band of 2 marines try to take a couple with a defense tower out. ANYWAYS... I moved off some of those servers and moved up to some more advanced ones where I'm getting nailed pretty bad again. I enjoy that more, for now. I've yet to try my hand at commander, and don't think I will indefinately as I don't have voice communication and I probably won't (USB headsets are about 80$!!!) anytime soon, but I don't mind at all so long as the Comm keeps us informed! <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
....................................... <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*
Hats off to people like you.
I will make this short.
They come in, we tell them not to go gorge. They go gorge. We gorge_kick them. We ask them not to go gorge. They go gorge. We gorge_kick them. They say "WTH this game sucks!". They leave the server.
Everyone play hapily ever after.
Anyways, my first game I just used quickstart, landed in a 2v2, and sadly... dominated as a skulk. They must've been no00oooooOOOoober than me; at least I have my CS background to help. My next game was a different (And much more informative) experience. I came into a game, joined as alien, when they already had a 2nd hive up. I asked a few simple questions (Are these MY resources, or the TEAMS resources? Can I spend em?) and got more than a few quick tips. Someone advised me to stay as skulk and run with him, as he was doing some, as he called em, 'keep em ****' runs. I followed along and got probably 2 kills for every death. Each time one of us died, the other just went suicidal so we could join up. Turns out he just got the game 4-5 days ago, and his friend who turned him onto it told him this is the best way to learn everything. He was quite correct. I skulked all night on cage, hera, and nothing, learning those maps well enough that I don't *always* have to follow (But I still do in the beginning, because I don't know the fastest routes yet).
Anywho, I eventually made it up to Onos because everyone else was doing it, helped smash up the marines last outpost and had a grand old time.
Yesterday I tried marines for the first time and I was hooked for good... the level of teamwork is astonishing! You just *cannot* win unless you work as a team! I also was lucky enough to get a very intelligent comm who made great use of WPs (which I haven't seen many people do yet...) as he guided us along, step by step, as we slowly hemmed the aliens in then finished them off. In the end, the game deteriorated a bit as our comm was brilliantly OVERcautious, and we were, as I believe it is called 'terraforming' way too much. I like that term, the first time I heard it out of context I knew what it meant .
Today was a mixed bag of games, I enjoyed alot of fade'ing and learned the joys of heavy armor as well, grabbing somehow more wins than losses for both aliens and humans. Most enjoyable. I even rather successfully gorged for two games today, recieving alot of 'thx schub' (I go by Schubert) or 'ty gorg' as I healed up and layed siege with offensive and defensive structures... since I'd already taken 5-6 RTs before the marines had an extra 2. BWAHAHAHA! OTs may suck, but let's see your split band of 2 marines try to take a couple with a defense tower out. ANYWAYS... I moved off some of those servers and moved up to some more advanced ones where I'm getting nailed pretty bad again. I enjoy that more, for now. I've yet to try my hand at commander, and don't think I will indefinately as I don't have voice communication and I probably won't (USB headsets are about 80$!!!) anytime soon, but I don't mind at all so long as the Comm keeps us informed! <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Posts like this make the day for us veterans. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Aye, I too am a happier man *sniffle* *tear* <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
But then I think of the quote, "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for the rest of his life."
I can't recall who, but there was some guy on the new players forum who was offering teaching people how to command on his server. He ran a few sessions for a weekend or two, and from the positive response he got, I'm sure some more would be useful.
Today, after some clan scrims, I turned my server back to a pub, and was idling in the ready room with some clan members and friends, looking to fill it. After about 5 minutes, a guy named "noob" jumps on and immediately goes marines (nobody was even in a team). I decided we didn't have enough people for an exciting battle, so me and another guy taught noob some of the basics of commanding.
It's really the contributions of the players and community that bring newbies into the game. Mostly it's friends teaching friends, but there are always those players who want to learn and ask questions and I find that mostly the community is open to teaching. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes, it is VERY frustrating as a commander sometimes, very, very! But non the less, when your told my a newcomer that they really liked how you helped them along, you get a warm suzzy feeling <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->