Tutorial maps

[rhiridflaidd]

I think that tutorial maps would be a massive boost to this game, especaially for those new to the game - especially since the game hasn't been released on all platforms yet.


The first map in the single player campaign could be redesigned to give a full, weapon by weapon tutorial. As every vehichle is introduced, I'd have a second, mainly flat, featureless level with repair droids of various agility (the ones we get to impact hammer in the first level) , all programmed to stay within a shooting range zone. You can enter this range to try out an impact hammer. It would basically be a place to practice aiming, and try various weapons. You complete a level by getting 15 headshots, 15 grenade kills, 15 shombo kills etc. It's important that the floor is reflective since players need to learn to use the floor reflection to judge the distance of a shock ball.

Success criteria
-15 kills with each mode of each weapon. These levels can be skipped if anybody so chooses. Character unlock on completing each level within a defined time limit.

Then there would be a second level with flat, slightly undulating terrain. You'd have a bot spawning one end, and you'd have a row of the same vehichle at your spawnpoints. The bots dammage output would be nerfed to a quarter of normal dammage levels. It would look simmilar to ut2004's tankwars, in my mind's eye.

These levels would be introduced as each new vehichle is introduced into the game. A simmilar feel to the matrix fight tutorial scenes....

Hopefully Kismet could be used so as you complete various objectives, so when you kill droids, it relewase the bots, and as you progress the bots would then have access to differnet vehichles that you'd then have to counter.

Manta - 15 roadkills vs bots with shock, and 5 pankackes, then 5 kills against bots with avrils, then kill a Goliath.

Scorpion - Roadkill droids, then 10 mantas, then 2 goliaths.

nightshade - roadkill \spider 15 droids, build a node, and put a slow field on it, and repair a friendly vehichle, EMP a goliath and kill the bot.

and so on...

Hopefully the same map can be used, but with different kismet rules for each tutorial.

[Kentarii77]

Thumbs up!

There are a lot of useful resources out there, but a good tutorial is gold for new players.

[Masaai_Warrior]

Man, I think that what is needed is one or two basic videos showing players on the stock map, maybe with some explanatory text every now and then.

Maybe if we play the US V Europe Warfare thing next month someone will be kind enough to edit the resulting demo video and putting it out to the new player community so they can see how a WAR match is supposed to go down.

[Rob.JW]

I believe it will be made into a highlight video.

A tutorial map would be great tbh. All you'd have to do is put in the various elements. Each weapon, a target to shoot etc Maybe even a few walls n stuf in a trials type way. Dodge here to land here. Id fully support any attempt to make this map \o/

[Masaai_Warrior]

Idd.

A target practice section would also help I suppose. It could enable players to use deflection targetting with the sniper and shock (i.e. take shots that also take into account the opponent's movement), as well as the shock secondary. Maybe also learn how to use the AVRILs.

Maybe a new thread should be made highlighting the main factors that new players find confusing...

[rhiridflaidd]

I guess if you could have some welding bots, behind some doors that open downwards in the far distance, that would be great for target practice.

I learnt how to aim shock and LG with angelmapper's targetpractice mod.....Ah the good old days....

For more advanced target practice, put a set of friendly and enemy bots to fight each other, in the sistance get the setting that's changed in patch 2 to ignore you completely, and snipe away.

I'm just bouncing ideas here btw. I don't have the expertise to pull it off propperly.

[D2F[Leo]]

Although I say that any online match helps you picking up the game more than a tutorial map ever will, I agree that there should be something like that.

Even if it's just for people who are afraid to jump in at the deep end and want to get some practise without ruffle or excitement, maybe even without bots.

[Masaai_Warrior]

I would wager that a good set of 'challenge' maps - much like the training simulator maps in Metal Gear Solid, would probably be played by everyone here depending on the level of skill required (think Portal with specific small sandbox environments and maybe small objectives to complete -like Rhirrid suggested - for each one).

Maybe one ‘Level’ has dodging through an obstacle course to survive a dangerous drop/environmental hazard, and other levels can have a small speed run/impact hammer jumps. Target practice can be like a shooting gallery with bots rolling by in different configurations and so on. Even professional players would be interested in beating stuff like that, at the right difficulty.

Remember how in Grand Theft Auto you can get licences for various types of vehicles? Or in the original Driver game when you had to pass a series of tests to unlock a mission? I think that kind of concept applied to an FPS would guarantee a certain level or knowledge of play to newcomers.

You could even dole out separate licences for movement, advanced movement, accuracy, vehicles, and most importantly - orb handling. Imagine being given a basic 1 node setup like in Sinkhole, being sent to capture the main node, return to get the orb, and then forced to defend the central node for a set amount of time (even with on-screen prompts like "Manta incoming, prepare your AVRIL", and if this is set on a massive landscape, you should be able to see the Manta from miles away) to help a novice understand what to do and what to expect. That would do more for this game in terms of newbies and experience levels than anything else. I suppose you could argue that this is more than adequately covered by Campaign though. I am talking about something more targeted than that. If integrated into Stats, it can give you some added personal gratification that you have completed ‘X out of Y’ challenges etc.

Hmmm, where’s that copy of UT3 Editor again

Just kidding, I don’t even have an idea of how hard (or easy) something like this must be to code.

[D2F[Leo]]

Bonus pack ftw? :P

Let's just bump this thread to death. ;>

[rhiridflaidd]

Licenses would be brilliant.

Even more subtle, and better imho, would be that viper and scorpion destructs wouldn't be enabled until you've got the training, that the cloaking would be discovered. The whole driver of becoming more and more powerful as you progress through a game, for whatever reason, appeals massively to me. Unlocking things as we go along would be amazing.

It would also add a good 4-5 hours to the campaign.

imho again, it would also appeal massively to the 360 owners. Perhaps the timeframe's wide enough for it to be possible.

Also, as Massai says, in the initial game, we shouldn't be the big movers and shakers. Our role would be to simply defend a node initially - and if we can defend it for long enough, we pass the test. In the same way as online, we would not expect a novice to be a gamechanging influence, in the early campaign, what would be expected of him would be very limited.

The more I think of it the more I'd enjoy mapping out a massive, progressive campaign.

How easy would it be to create a custom campaign using current maps I wonder.

[rhiridflaidd]

I've been thinking even more about this.

Forget 4-5 hours - why not give it a massive scale. You buy your way into everything - start off with a dodgy respawner, and you haven't paid the corporations enough for them to allow you to pick up their expensive weapons and vehichles. You get paid for your performance on playing the game, and critically, you don't play to win initially. You play to stay alive and try to accomplish the objectives you're given. If you complete the objectives, you get more cash.

After buying licenses to use all the stuff (and geting trained in their use) you then need to work on your own image, to be cool enough for a team to want you to be a member (since tournaments are a spectaor sport.)

Then you buy your way to be team leader. Then you can buy new and better players to be in your team. Throw in a few subplots, and it would be amazing. It's all dependent on the 2.0's ability to get bots to be more inteligent.

But moving the focus away from winning a map, and to complete objectives within a game, would move things to the next level.