A Bigger Bang
CEldin
Join Date: 2002-09-16 Member: 1323Members
Join Date: 2002-09-16 Member: 1323Members
I think that when NS2 is released there should be a delay between its release on the 'store' page on the Steam browser and when it is actually released. Let me explain.
NS2 will get press, whether it's a lot or a little we can't predict, but the press will attract people who want to experiment with it. Some of those people will become consistent users. Others will not. When NS2 is on the front page of steam, as a released game, I really want the best foot to be put fourth. I have a vested interest in this, as do the members of this community, because I want the best possible games I can get. More people equals more goodness on that front as far as I'm concerned. And we'll attract people by having an active, competitive community.
This is not Team Fortress 2, a game you can pick up quite quickly. It is also not CS or CSS, games which immediately gratify nublets. NS and its more recent sibling NS2 are HARD. The learning curve is absolutely brutal. If you don't know what's up you'll end up getting completely steamrolled. How do we combat the negativity inherent in a system like that? We make sure the core community is strong before its 'real' release. Sure, tutorials will help but... how many of you learned the skills you needed to play this game from anyone but human beings? It's complicated, multi-tiered, and unlike anything most people have ever seen.
So PLEASE let the community develop a little bit before it's put on that 'store' page. Please.
Perhaps I'm wrong but I believe the critical difference between the launch of NS1 and NS2 is the price. In NS1 I played that first Halloween night at NO COST. Yeah it was exhilarating to experience a game like I had never experienced before but it COST ME NOTHING. Nobody had any idea what the hell was going on, what we were supposed to do, or how we were supposed to win. If I had to pay for that experience? I'd be totally furious, no doubt about it.
NS2 will get press, whether it's a lot or a little we can't predict, but the press will attract people who want to experiment with it. Some of those people will become consistent users. Others will not. When NS2 is on the front page of steam, as a released game, I really want the best foot to be put fourth. I have a vested interest in this, as do the members of this community, because I want the best possible games I can get. More people equals more goodness on that front as far as I'm concerned. And we'll attract people by having an active, competitive community.
This is not Team Fortress 2, a game you can pick up quite quickly. It is also not CS or CSS, games which immediately gratify nublets. NS and its more recent sibling NS2 are HARD. The learning curve is absolutely brutal. If you don't know what's up you'll end up getting completely steamrolled. How do we combat the negativity inherent in a system like that? We make sure the core community is strong before its 'real' release. Sure, tutorials will help but... how many of you learned the skills you needed to play this game from anyone but human beings? It's complicated, multi-tiered, and unlike anything most people have ever seen.
So PLEASE let the community develop a little bit before it's put on that 'store' page. Please.
Perhaps I'm wrong but I believe the critical difference between the launch of NS1 and NS2 is the price. In NS1 I played that first Halloween night at NO COST. Yeah it was exhilarating to experience a game like I had never experienced before but it COST ME NOTHING. Nobody had any idea what the hell was going on, what we were supposed to do, or how we were supposed to win. If I had to pay for that experience? I'd be totally furious, no doubt about it.
Comments
Maybe I misunderstood your post.
And idea I have is that you can klick on the tooltip that opens the steambrowser and the NS2 wikipage about the thing he klicked. So you a new player can, if he is interested, the wiki instead of just the tooltip.
And your example did not happens in NS2, because while you will not jumping into Hive, you can't place buildings :D
anyway ... as 186 NS2HD video shows, there will be in-game helpers like Heal / Ammo Pack icons, and many on the fly tool-tips like when you aim at power node, it shows that it need to repair ; or protect :D
Compared to Cod, NS2s learning curve is much steeper, but compared to Ninja Gaiden it's a walk in the park.
Hell, even Psychonauts have a steeper learning curve than NS2 albeit in the middle of the game as opposed to NS2 where it's at the start.
Once game mechanics in NS2 settle down and stay there permanently where only smaller balance adjustments are needed we'll start seeing ingame "tutorials" popping up for the various buildings and such.
You are Pvt. Smith and you and your squad are sent to a <i>summit</i> station in which some strange things happen (intro-cutscene).
You are new to the frontiersmen and this is your first real mission. Because you are a newbie you only get the pistol and no LMG.
Now your team arrives and the commander gives you order to build the IPs and an amory (while explaining what they do, becaus yeou are new, you know) and then move with red squat to the ventilation room to build a restower (strictly to rule for TSA missions) you take the point (let see what the newbie can do) and the rest of the squat (NPC players) follows. You have to build the RT (the commander again explaines what it does) while the others cover you. One is standing in pipe junction.
Suddently a shadow quickly moves by (script scene) and the guy in pipe junction dies. Everyone is shocked... could it be... that some of the fearsome khara are in this summit station...?
The commander orders you back to base to pick up a LMG and the respawned marine, then it is back to vent.
and so on and so on
Now that would be an awesome tutorial and fun to play!
And maybe there could be a single player mission for the khaara as well
unfortunally I can't program :-/
But I would so like to write the script for the single player missions!
It's like when you have a newby commander..saaayyyy for the aliens. they may have been in matches,and maybe helped win,but they want to command now. If they are slow to get things up (say there isnt even a whip for the first 3 minutes or so) the alien team may ask if they are new, if yes then they either ask for them to get out so someone with more experience can be a commander , with the new guy probably now realizing the sequence in which 'good' or 'better' commanders lay down structures, or the aliens talk him through it.
However then there are noob commanders, the other side to being new, who refuse to think they are doing wrong and won't listen to their team. Such noob-y actions may consist of refusing to upgrade their alien team,and continuously trying to drop hives without telling your comrades where, or asking them to scout out the target zone quickly to make sure no one is coming. Even after the second hive is destroyed they won't alter their plan and continue to drop hives. then again,that could just be a troll too :p
Reguardless,they understand second hive = good and thats all they really know,and telling them to do this+that won't work,even if being nice, because they think they are correct and nothing will change them.
Not everyone can be the best player, but as a community, we need to help those who are bad players, become semi-decent or even really good players,the best we can, and the first step to doing so is to offer small advice and try not to lose our cool. That is, until we have a guide in-game that is readily available.
As long as some of us know at least the basics of the game, we can feed that information to noobs and newbs alike and eventually both sets may learn. If they want to stop dieing or losing matches, they'll adapt and grow.
Actually I prefered Sens to be dropped 1st, was far the best upgrade, silent skulks = win !
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/aUV8g.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Wrong chamber mate ;-). Silence is on the Movement Chamber. Sens is: SOF, Focus and cloak.
SC > DC > MC is fun in pubs though :)