The importance of a new tutorial system.

Blarney_StoneBlarney_Stone Join Date: 2013-03-08 Member: 183808Members, Reinforced - Shadow
edited June 2013 in NS2 General Discussion
Several people have posted on this matter in the "Proposed Balance Changes" thread, but I believe this to be an important enough issue that it deserves its own thread.

The balance mod is going live in the next couple weeks, and most who have played the mod for more than a couple hours seem to be of the opinion that the changes coming will be for the better. The mod adds many more strategies, makes underused elements viable and stops games from being as predictable as they were in vanilla NS2. These changes will most likely breathe some life into the competitive scene.

Seeing as this is a complete game relaunch we're talking about here, chances are that the release of this mod is going to come with a sale and a free weekend. This is where the problem emerges. To put it simply, NS2 has a major player retention problem. It's sold plenty of copies, but currently has fallen off of the top 100 games on Steam. A startlingly low number of the players from the last free weekend stuck around past it, despite a good number of copies being sold.

Now, part of the issue has been performance. Hopefully the introduction of LuaJIT will mollify these concerns. The BT mod itself will also help to remove another issue in player retention, that being the staleness and predictability of competitive matches. On the other hand, there is another reason this game loses so many players that isn't being addressed - the steep learning curve and the lack of a good tutorial system.

This game has an extremely steep learning curve. There is more depth and strategy to be had, and more things that need to be learned, than most multiplayer games have to offer. As a result, it is very possible for new players to feel completely lost and unsure of what to do. Unfortunately, there is no good tutorial system in place to make the introduction to the game's mechanics easier for them. The YouTube videos included in the game are entirely unsatisfactory. They do not share all of the important info, and many of them are so poorly done that it would be extremely difficult for a new player to glean any important information from them. Struggling to pick up all of the complex gameplay mechanics and without an informative tutorial, many new players become frustrated and leave the game behind.

The introduction of the balance mod will increase the learning curve for the game, particularly when it comes to alien movement. The Skulk and Fade can move much more quickly in BT than in vanilla, but in order to do so players must use a more skill-based system, and also one that is less intuitive for a beginning player to pick up. Additionally, the BT will make all of the current tutorial videos more or less obsolete, as so many elements of the game will be changing.

Because of this, I am requesting that UWE strongly consider completely revamping their tutorial system from the ground up to make it more intuitive for new players. The BT will improve the game, but without a better tutorial in place the game will still struggle to retain new players. The next free weekend will end up exactly like the last one did unless serious changes are made to the way UWE caters to new players.

If anyone from the community is willing to provide assistance, they should speak up, here or otherwise, as this is a problem that affects all of us.

I'm sorry for the essay-length post, but this is a topic that I strongly feel is vital to the continued survival of NS2.
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Comments

  • SolidSpiderSolidSpider Join Date: 2013-04-14 Member: 184805Members
    OP is right.

    A lot of people here seem to focus on whether or not the BT mod will save or ruin this game, blah blah this particular change is terrible blah blah Docking is ruined, etc.

    While these topics are obviously woth discussing, ask yourselves this: does the vast majority of the people who bought this game, but no longer play, actually care?

    Most of them were probably trying to figure out how to play anything other than Rifle marine, because the role of the rest of the stuff was not adequately explained. What do all these structures do? What are the general tactics other than kill stuff? How do I get this, how do I get that, why am I getting steamrolled?... not to mention the patience and practice involved in getting somewhat decent with the actual movement/shooting mechanics.

    Oh well. I'm just saying I don't want this game to be reduced to basically the forum's population, that's all...
  • BicsumBicsum Join Date: 2012-02-27 Member: 147596Members, Reinforced - Gold
    edited June 2013
    Agreed. A real ingame tutorial system is needed more than anything else at the moment.

    It would need to cover all aspects of the game split into different chapters.

    Alien movement could be easily explained on a test parkour where you could see how to do it in a demo beforehand (including a visualization of the buttons pressed) and then you would have to repeat it yourself.
  • NeokenNeoken Bruges, Belgium Join Date: 2004-03-20 Member: 27447Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Playtester
    edited June 2013
    Yup, a walkthrough tutorial would be ideal, especially for the different lifeform movement systems. I'd even go as far as making it mandatory before you can join a server. I've seen waaaaay too many hallway walker fades, floor sitting lerks and straight runner skulks during the last free weekend.
  • PandademicPandademic Join Date: 2013-02-26 Member: 183359Members
    Couldn't agree more.

    I look forward to the balance update, I can't wait for biodome, and the performance boost was very nice indeed. But all that is a tragic waste if this game can't get more players. If F2P weekends are the best way to garner fresh players, and I think that's true, then the game needs to be approachable withing that time frame. As is, it's not. It took me more than a weekend to do anything but die in this game, and over 100 hours before I discovered the secret behind all that double-jump shadow stepping business. (and all that's about to change, good grief). It takes serious commitment to become even competent at this game.

    As is, learning this game is like teaching yourself to surf. You know how to swim, and how to skate. Paddling out and catching a wave should be easy. But it isn't. No one taught you how to duck dive, so you're going face first into the breaks, choking on wave after wave and getting no further from the shore. But you're determined, and a strong swimmer, so eventually you get past the breakers and sit atop your board. Time to catch a wave. The first one's coming, and you start to paddle, but nothing happens. No one taught you to time your paddling, how hard and when. So you sit patiently for the next wave and try again. A little better, you caught some momentum but didn't get far. Wait some more, try a few times, and finally catch a wave. You're in it now, you can feel the ocean behind you, propelling you, and you try to stand. Nope. No one taught you how. You should have pushed up sooner, lifted your knee faster, planted your foot further forward, and turned your ankle a few more degrees. But you don't even know that those things matter. You just know your balance was off and the window of opportunity is smaller than you expected. Next time you'll try not to lean, and to get up quicker. But next time is a while off. That's the hardest part about surfing. You have to paddle back out, wait for a good wave, try to catch it, and if all that works out you get another 3 second attempt at standing. Drown, repeat. It takes a while just to learn what you're doing wrong, let alone how to do it right.

    But if you had taken one lesson, the first thing you'd be doing is practicing proper form on the beach, learning which foot goes first, popping up as many times as it takes to get the hang of it. You'd know when to catch your first wave, and how to stand once you did. You might even surf your first day out. Doesn't take long to teach my friends the basics, and get them standing at least on their first day. Me, I taught myself to surf, and it took me all summer.
  • VenatosVenatos Join Date: 2012-03-31 Member: 149762Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Gold
    edited June 2013
    im actually suprised noone made a tutorial mod by now, i thought about it for a year, but never had the determination to learn lua and mapping.
    everybody seems to agree that a tutorial is important and i guess could be done in a week if you know what you are doing.(at least the basics, a nicely detailed tutorial map takes obviously longer)
  • current1ycurrent1y Join Date: 2003-12-08 Member: 24150Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
    edited June 2013
    A basic tutorial that every person should know inside their first hour or 3 of play is needed. A person first booting up the game would watch this. It would be comprised of a VERY simple explanation of the very basics. Basically information to help them be useful to the team. For example: press C to open map, stick with a buddy on marines and follow them. listen to teammates, on alien press shift to walk quietly, ambush marines and run on walls, press b to evolve upgrades every spawn. Explain that for now they don't need to know why something is happening only to listen and look at your map and move to where your team is.

    After this you should have a more interactive set of tutorials. Something they can open up in game and click alien or marine. Get a list of topics weapons, buildings, research paths, lifeforms. Allow them to narrow down what they are looking for and get information to ONLY what they are specifically looking for. This more interactive tutorial would serve as a way for players to see something in game and go look it up in the tutorial to find out what the fuck that just was. They want to know Why 3 crag shells were just placed on the ground? Well they go look up aliens>buildings and have them click on the picture of the building they just saw. They want to know why every one was yelling (kill the obs!!!) well they can go look up marine>buildings>observatory "obs" and see just what that thing does! Have it play a video and explain what the structure does, it's importance and what it costs.
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    Venatos wrote: »
    im actually suprised noone made a tutorial mod by now, i thought about it for a year, but never had the determination to learn lua and mapping.
    everybody seems to agree that a tutorial is important and i guess could be done in a week if you know what you are doing.(at least the basics, a nicely detailed tutorial map takes obviously longer)
    I think this is the only way its going to happen, given current resources.
    Would be amazing if a few members of the community were able to assemble such a thing.

    I recommend a forced basic tutorial lasting no more than 3 minutes that's fun and simple, starting with one minute video briefly giving an overview - with successive optional tutorials that go into more detail. Each should start with quick video, as mentioned, followed by the user having to mimic said actions.
  • GeekavengerGeekavenger Join Date: 2012-08-31 Member: 157117Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    IronHorse wrote: »

    I recommend a forced basic tutorial lasting no more than 3 minutes that's fun and simple, starting with one minute video briefly giving an overview - with successive optional tutorials that go into more detail. Each should start with quick video, as mentioned, followed by the user having to mimic said actions.

    I agree, I know it is sacrilege to reference this, but the opening tutorials on the gun range in COD:MW 1&2 would be a superb model if someone could fit that in. Short, interactive, fit contextually, and you get graded at the end. The contextual part would be harder for aliens, but I would suggest keeping that to Skulk and Gorge Play. Maybe add advanced tutorials for higher life forms/ Higher Tech as optional.

    Another good tutorial was for Chivalry (although I am terrible at that game) I feel like I understood how to play as soon as I got online.
  • HughHugh Cameraman San Francisco, CA Join Date: 2010-04-18 Member: 71444NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
    Unfortunately UWE does not have the resources to create a new tutorial system. The existing in-game-movie system will be slightly improved over the next few weeks. There will be no free-weekend related to the upcoming balance changes.

    Any community efforts to create a tutorial mod or other cool helpful tutorial system would of course be welcomed with open arms! As has been the case since the birth NS, the best tutorial system out there is people being kind, patient, helpful to new players :)
  • 0ni0ni Join Date: 2012-08-30 Member: 156991Members
    Single player campaign would be the coolest imo. Use altered levels to make them linear hallways where a scripted com tells you what to do and upgrades come after each accomplishment. Have the scripted com explain to you how to use them to accomplish the next goal. Maybe some levels where you com for bots in the same situation? I guess this all depends on some really pro quality bots though, especially for skulks.
  • Ghosthree3Ghosthree3 Join Date: 2010-02-13 Member: 70557Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    Honestly the bots wouldn't have to be pro if every event was scripted, that is, you decide EXACTLY how an engagement is going to happen in it.
  • 0ni0ni Join Date: 2012-08-30 Member: 156991Members
    They still have to react to the player though and decent wall walking would probably take some skills to pull off I should think.

    More importantly, I simply do not have the skills or time to pull this off. I rarely find the time to learn enough of the editor to work on my map, let alone how to do any scripting. Doesn't hurt to throw ideas out there though. I really feel like a SP mode would help the learning curve a lot though.
  • HughHugh Cameraman San Francisco, CA Join Date: 2010-04-18 Member: 71444NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
    current1y wrote: »
    A basic tutorial that every person should know inside their first hour or 3 of play is needed. A person first booting up the game would watch this...

    Just had a fascinating chat with current1y outside the thread - It turns out he had never realised the existing gameplay primer existed :P

    This fascinates me - Is this a common trend? Were many of you unaware of its existence? If so, did you instinctively dismiss the popup on game start?

    Given it has ~23,000 views, it clearly has not been watched by everyone who bought the game...
  • Ghosthree3Ghosthree3 Join Date: 2010-02-13 Member: 70557Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    What popup...If it's related to the first time you load the game, and was released after ~b160 then it's possible I never saw it.
  • BensonBenson Join Date: 2012-03-07 Member: 148303Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    edited June 2013
    If there was simply an interactive "tech tree" menu from the startup screen (possibly under "training"), a lot of the accessibility issues could be addressed.

    If the "tech tree" had the tech flow, building/weapon/lifeform descriptions, costs, and recommended usage, new players could enter the game at least knowing what everything is, even if they don't know how to use it properly.

    Also, if there was a prompt when starting the game for all players with "rookie" status on strongly recommending they look at it to familiarize themselves, it would help, at least until they have a few hours of game time.

    Personally, I don't have the patience or willpower to sit through multiple training videos in order to learn a game as sometimes, a lot of things can be considered "too basic" and sound condescending, but if an easy to use, interactive list of all objects and lifeforms in the game existed, new players might not feel so overwhelmed and actually learn a bit.

    Edit: found this from a while ago, Dropbox link still seems to work;
    http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/122159/marine-tech-tree-interactive-infograph
  • ezekelezekel Join Date: 2012-11-29 Member: 173589Members, NS2 Map Tester
    Hugh wrote: »
    current1y wrote: »
    A basic tutorial that every person should know inside their first hour or 3 of play is needed. A person first booting up the game would watch this...

    Just had a fascinating chat with current1y outside the thread - It turns out he had never realised the existing gameplay primer existed :P

    This fascinates me - Is this a common trend? Were many of you unaware of its existence? If so, did you instinctively dismiss the popup on game start?

    Given it has ~23,000 views, it clearly has not been watched by everyone who bought the game...

    I've never seen whatever it is you're referring too, but I have hints and stuff disabled in options; or is this something that you only see when you first install the game after a certain patch?

    I think a straight line room which explains all the basics before you can play would be neat, like forcing you to do each thing in the game with a brief explanation as to why/what it does, and give a checkmark so they can continue onto the next part
  • PandademicPandademic Join Date: 2013-02-26 Member: 183359Members
    Well, I'm willing to put my other mapping efforts aside and help make a single player tutorial map. For aliens, it would be mostly an obstacle course to teach beginner movement, like how to launch off the ground or cling to walls as lerk, how to string shadow steps/jumps as fade, maybe even the basic concept of ambushing. That would be fun to design, a scenario that teaches skulks the importance of grouping up for ambushes. For marines, it would mostly be a tech tree and gun range demonstration, maybe if it's possible to script some bot movement, then getting the player into positions to observe alien behavior types would be incredibly useful. Lots of ideas on this.
  • StardogStardog Join Date: 2004-10-25 Member: 32448Members
    edited June 2013
    I haven't had the tutorial notes enabled for a while, but a "Press C to see the map" message should be there permanently.

    Also, notes about protecting/taking res towers should appear every 30 seconds. It should mention that if you have less than 4 you are definately losing the game. The dots in the bottom-right aren't exactly clear about what they represent, either.

    Whenever a res tower is built/places, a message like the "power under attack" message should appear in the middle of the screen informing rookies.

    Also, just rename all Extractors/Harvest to Resource Towers...
  • PandademicPandademic Join Date: 2013-02-26 Member: 183359Members
    What is this primer of which you speak?
  • RollmansRollmans Join Date: 2013-06-16 Member: 185579Members
    edited June 2013
    Never seen the magical primer. I definitely didn't dismiss it.
  • RedSwordRedSword Join Date: 2006-12-07 Member: 58947Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    edited June 2013
    Hugh wrote: »
    current1y wrote: »
    A basic tutorial that every person should know inside their first hour or 3 of play is needed. A person first booting up the game would watch this...

    Just had a fascinating chat with current1y outside the thread - It turns out he had never realised the existing gameplay primer existed :P

    This fascinates me - Is this a common trend? Were many of you unaware of its existence? If so, did you instinctively dismiss the popup on game start?

    Given it has ~23,000 views, it clearly has not been watched by everyone who bought the game...

    Yes I'm pretty sure it is a common trend. And I believe a tutorial where the player can actually play might be better than simple videos (but yours were still useful for commanding).
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    Its when you first click "Play" to see the server list, on the first time you've ran NS2.. there's a popup that asks if you want to watch the tutorial video and a little checkmark box that you can click that says "Never show again".

    I think it showed up for all the new players, but its human nature to click away popups.
    Perhaps if there were four more... "Are you sure?" "Are you really really sure?" "You're gonna have a bad time if not?"
    :-P
  • 0ni0ni Join Date: 2012-08-30 Member: 156991Members
    I never noticed a popup. I wouldn't watch a video anyway, seems lame. The training should definitely be in game. No better way to learn then by doing.
  • XaoXao Join Date: 2012-12-12 Member: 174840Members
    Same problem with all the people who tell green names "Press C to open map" fuck off grandpa, I'm still sure a lot of people don't realise the green names standing around in base being useless are actually watching videos being useless instead.

    It was implemented sometime in March? Around Gorgeous update, reason why 90% ish of the people still playing haven't seen it.
  • piratedavepiratedave Join Date: 2012-03-10 Member: 148561Members
    should have done a tutorial jam instead of the mod jam -_-
  • realmenplaypingpongrealmenplaypingpong Join Date: 2009-02-23 Member: 66520Members
    edited June 2013
    Everyone is quick to identify a problem, but very few suggest plausible solutions. Producing an entire single player campaign would not a reasonable use of time for the unknown worlds team, nor would revamping the entire tutorial system.

    First suggestion:

    There are many quality tutorials available on youtube. UWE could incorporate some of these videos into their tutorials; advanced fade movement, advanced lerk play, etc, but especially commanding tutorials would be extremely helpful.

    Second suggestion:
    For training mode/Experimental mode

    I would like to suggest the following to further developing bots mode to resolve the learning curve issue. I personally was unaware that a bots-mode existed until yesterday. Perhaps somehow making the mode more obvious would be helpful to new players. If this could somehow be combined with training/experimental mode, all the better. Allowing players to transition easily from training experimental mode to a bots game could be useful and less imtimidating. Adding something on the main page next to "play", "play with bots", might be useful. I suspect new players would be far more likely to click "play with bots" initially, and espeically after getting roflstomped in game. Pop-ups as previously described, largely go unnoticed.

    While in bot mode, I noticed commands were not readily apparent. It seems, a player is only allowed to play as the marine com. If a list of commands could be provided in-game w/o having to open the console or search online, this might allow for better use of bot mode. Something simple like a help menu might be pretty easy for the Lua-savy to produce.

    Commands like /help
    /menu
    /addbots
    /addalienbot
    /removemarinebot
    /restart
    /addmarinecom
    /setdifficulty hard

    The learning curve could be dramatically reduced in this sort of sandbox environment, especially if also incorporated into combat mode. An hour or two spent defending spawn on co_core w/ a shotgun against 5 leaping skulks would surely accilmate a new player to the physics of the game.

    I recall my first experience as onos in ns1 clearly. Saving up all game only to be crushed quickly by 4-5 marines was beyond frustrating. A bot combat mode would avoid that terrible sinking feeling. "To devour effectively, you must aim for the feet"

    Something tells me, everything I've described here already exists.

    my 2 cents. I'm sure others have viable solutions.
  • Blarney_StoneBlarney_Stone Join Date: 2013-03-08 Member: 183808Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    I agree that there are great YouTube videos out there (TychoCelchuu taught me the basics of the game and Bitey and Tyrsis turned me into a respectable Fade) the problem is that all of those videos will be obsolete once BT goes live. So we would need community members to make new videos that explain the game in its new state.

    I would be willing to give it a try, although I am far from the best NS2 player around so perhaps the job would be better suited for the more experienced.
  • daisywong2012daisywong2012 Join Date: 2013-06-08 Member: 185508Members
    Thank you for sharing.
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