Trench Wars Tutorial

[Dexter]

If you think a bot is necessary, post what it would really do on twcore.org (new ticket)
Thanks,
-dexter

[Ephemeral]

Challenges
To be useful any TW tutorial is going to have to have to be complete and cover many aspects of the game (ships, weapons, arenas, strategies, etc.).
Many people have an attention span of about 30 seconds.
A picture is worth 1000 words.
Adding tutorial functionality directly to the game server via Bots is a potential risk and performance impact.

Potential Solution
Use video screen capture program with recorded voice-overs to generate short video vignettes. Developing these using a applications such as SnagIt is very simple and this certainly can be done quicker than developing static screen shots/verbiage or the ‘interactive’ help described in this thread. Keep the video vignettes around 30 seconds each and serve them up off the TW web site.

[Xog]

Keep the video vignettes around 30 seconds each and serve them up off the TW web site.

new players aren't going to be going to the tw web site

[Ephemeral]

new players aren't going to be going to the tw web site

Not an obstacle, simply supply the link in the game.

[Eugene]

no offense to your suggestion Ephemeral, as it is not a bad one really.

but in my opinion... if I were ever to start up a new game and I had to go to some external website to find out what to do, I would
1. never click that link
2. never come back to that game

Not to mention, noobs probably don't even know that you can alt-tab out of the game to click links. They would be like "am i supposed to write this link down or memorize it? screw this game"

[InCure.]

Not to mention, noobs probably don't even know that you can alt-tab out of the game to click links. They would be like "am i supposed to write this link down or memorize it? screw this game"

As Eph said, no obstacle.

If you give them short info about the link and alt tab I'm pretty sure many people will click it.

You could also promise a reward to those that clicked the link. A code on the website that you tell to a bot which will then reward you. Would need an extra bot function tho

[Eugene]

Incure - the "reward system" you are suggesting just adds the requirement for new bot programming to the mix...

Yes, it is true that you could tell them to alt-tab out of game to click the link, however, if I were starting out a new game.. I would never do so, albeit this is solely my opinion.

[midoent]

props to u lf that ur doing this, but it might be too late =(

[fLaReD]

i have started working on a tutorial arena that will be interactive, very brief and cover the important basics. it will start with movement, thrust, energy, radar, and shooting, then move on to very brief descriptions of each ship. then commands, attaching, frequencies, and arenas (in this order). dexter will be writing a bot for this. it will be using almost 100% screenobjects for each step. if anyone is interested in helping, let me know.

[kthx]

I suck at this but thats what you should do.

[Dabram]

i have started working on a tutorial arena that will be interactive, very brief and cover the important basics. it will start with movement, thrust, energy, radar, and shooting, then move on to very brief descriptions of each ship. then commands, attaching, frequencies, and arenas (in this order). dexter will be writing a bot for this. it will be using almost 100% screenobjects for each step. if anyone is interested in helping, let me know.

if u need anyone to cheer u on or cheer u up when u r down, let me know.

:wub:

other than that i'm pretty useless

[Nockm]

From the start of this thread, I thought of this which was nicely done:

[Nockm]

To add... I think having a bot etc. would be great, but it should be just a luxurious bonus: it shouldn't be relied on. Have something visually descriptive and simple in ?go tutorial so that it can be referred to easily, and hey when bots go down it'll still be there!

Plus it will be easy to edit/add to for people without programming experience :S