Ui hints for new players

Flayra · July 2002

<div class="IPBDescription">Or, how i spent my sunday</div>After hearing from quite a few people that they are having a difficult time learning NS, I decided I had better do something fast. What I decided on was something like Warcraft III, which displays a nice tooltip no matter what you hover over. I think this takes a step further, as it gives you detailed info about anything you put your targetting reticle on (or mouse, in commander mode).

This should really help new players out, as it explains every weapon, and every building. Also note the much more descriptive waypoints. They show you an icon, then describe the goal, then tell you how far away the waypoint is, and also tell you the name of the map location that the waypoint is in. Here are the shots, hope you like 'em.

(btw, the map is TommyD's ns_tanith)

<img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/uploads/cgc-popuphelp.jpg" border="0">

Gwahir · July 2002

wow, bite damage is 110

as for the new tooltips, obviously you can turn them off, but when they're up, do they show all the time, in other words can they get annoying to the still new player?

Rico1 · July 2002

nice work <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

Knightmare · July 2002

So, no manual needed anymore right?

Sleepy · July 2002

If you disable it, can you still have the meters-to on waypoints? I think that is a good feature to have regardless... unless you can see the way point on the mini-map also.

Behrooz · July 2002

Excellent plan. I'd suggest having an obvious cvar to turn the hints off for experienced players, though.

Also, there will always be the need for a manual-- quick tooltips really aren't the place for detailed information about how everything works, or generalized strategy, etc.

Flayra · July 2002

The hints only show up when you're looking at a structure, or when you're selecting a weapon. You can turn them off, of course.

Gwahir · July 2002

very good.

The waypoint system I would say is just about perfect if not entirely so. I'm not sure if it is small enough but you don't want to change the font size and if you reduce icon alone, you lose proportion... So as is seems the best choice.

JediYoshi · July 2002

Do you get amounts of bites. Or are they unlimited. Or can you only do them if you have enough resources. If it's something in which you can do alot(simoltaniouly) what is the rate of bite? But the screen sure are purdy. <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'>

MariNe · July 2002

*drools* Newbies shouldnt have a problem knowing what is what and what it does now. Nice work is all i can say.

TiCK · July 2002

This brought me to a question..

In other mods when I am spectating, the 'void' (black area outside geometry of the map) is not solid black (in software mode it is). When looking into the void, I see 'trails' of what I was last looking at and generally very glitchy stuffs. I use Dir3D.

Does NS do commander mode any differently than spec modes of other maps, or is it essentially a top-down spec mode?

In other words, if I was commander, would I see black background or the same thing I get when I look into the void in other mods?

coil · July 2002

You don't get the blurriness when you command; it's very clean. More Flayrific code magic!

Crim0nKing · July 2002

have my babies kthx.

tommyd · July 2002

wow, this is even better than i imagined, flay. this will help the new players very much. can't wait to try it out.

Scythe · July 2002

A great idea Flayra, taking a bit of a lead from S&I. Just make sure there is a bloody obvious way to turn them off and/or change the timeout on the tooltips. :-D

Just a tiny nitpick: The popup for the phasegate says: "Spawns marines in from offworld.". This wouldn't be right if it was a space station or a ship in orbit. Call me anal retentive if you will but it just might looks weird.

Also, the text may not be able to read when you are looking at a blue thing with the same hue as the text. This would be the same for any colour text so I guess it would be best to go with the colour that looked coolest.

And those resource and energy bars for the aliens look mighty sweet too. Is there a way to increase the energy regen rate? Be near a hive or resource tower for instance? Maybe having a nibble on a dead enemy/teammate?

--Scythe--
<a href="mailto:the_only_scythe@subdimension.com">the_only_scythe@subdimension.com</a>

humbaba · July 2002

Wow, great stuff. I am very impressified. Now lets hear those punks say the learnign curves is steep! hah!

Snake13 · July 2002

wow cool, one question after seeing the waypoints and other thing it seems like they are very large, are you having and problems with screen clutter?

ChromeAngel · July 2002

Nice work Flayra.

Sono · July 2002

Wow, that is giving ppl really no problem of understanding.
It's good if you might have forgotten something that is explained in the manual. And the waypoint system is great.

pielemuis · July 2002

i like it alot, much better than the SI tips. They block my sight and get annoying real easy (and yes i always forget to look up the command to turn it off s:)). it's perfect as far as i can tell s:) btw nice map tommyd glad t osee you're still working on it, i thought you started another map, but i recognized the outside area s:)

CollateralDamage · July 2002

Great addition. That should reduce the pool of the eternally clueless players to the illiterate.

Asraniel · July 2002

i cannot see the picture....... its 0 kb big

PS: ok, now its good, my PC had a problem....

Silver_Fox · July 2002

Genius ...

I love it.

f3rret · July 2002

Hm... nobody else pointed this out yet, so I think I will.

<b>They gave us numbers!!!</b>

From this, I will infer that the balancing is nearly done. <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

Lazarus · July 2002

Really nice, but does it only take 2 bites to kill a marine as a bo... I mean level 1?

ChromeAngel · July 2002

Don't read too much into the numbers f3rret, they are still STC. Flayra has a server-side CFG file or somesuch...

Sono · July 2002

Q: Do marines have a standard armor of maybe 50 or so? Or does a marine start with plain 100 health and 0 armor?

I'm asking bout two things:
1. The marine model looks quite as it's waering armor
2. If you start with just 100 health and 0 armor, than bob is the l33t-skill-one-bite-one-kill toy of that game <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'>

alius42 · July 2002

Great idea! It doesn't seem like it impedes vision in anyway either.

TiCK · July 2002

Yeah, at least they aren't the S&I tooltips that take up half the freaking screen.

Hopefully they are equally as small in 800x600 res.

Slycaster · July 2002

Bob does not kill in 1 bite at the beginning, and niether can the marine obviously. It is balanced for the beginning well, and once upgrades come into play, everything drastically changes.

Daxx · July 2002

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (Cyanide @ July 29 2002,10:42)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><b>Bob does not kill in 1 bite at the beginning, and niether can the marine obviously. </b> </td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
So does that mean the Marine (example of hard english <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>) has a bite attack? <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'>

Seriously, this looks bloody good, much better than S&I screen blocking, hard to get rid off tips.

Ui hints for new players

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