There is a new Tutorial

[Babyfark McGeez]

Originally Posted by synkrotron

As a new player I did this tutorial, a couple of times. In my opinion it still leaves a lot of questions. And although the wiki here is very helpful there a shortcomings there too. I have had to rely quite a lot on my outfit chums to answer my "dumb" questions...

You should get a "top list" of the things the tutorial didn't help you with and post it here. Since malorn seems to be involved in making it and he looked into this thread chances are you might get someone lurking and listening who can actually do something about problems with it.

Personally i never had a problem with starting this game (coming from PS1 and all that), i just happened to see the tutorial for the first time and thought it deserved some positive feedback and credit. I cannot really judge it from a "newbies" perspective though, so real new player experience is likely welcome and more helpful here from a devs perspective.

[Malorn]

It isn't intended to answer all your questions. It's intended to give you the basics so you can go out and play the game with a clue as to what to do. It also covers all of the major gameplay mechanics, particularly those that are not common to all shooters, and especially those that are unique to PS2.

- How to capture a facility (PS2 is a bit non-standard here due to open world)

- Overloading Gens (similar to M-COMs, but not every game has those)

- Movement tools (jump pads, lifts, teleporters, and not every game has sprint)

- Respawning (what do you do when you die? how can you redeploy around to different fights?)

- Equipment terminals (most shooters don't have these - changing classes and resupplying between deaths is a surprisingly foreign concept to most FPS gamers)

- Basics of shooting (while simple, not every game is ADS, spotting, special abilities)

- The classes & how you can use them (MAX in particular are effectively unique to PS2)

- Vehicle terms (most shooters don't have these either, another relatively foreign concept)

- How to deal with vehicles, and vehicles are tough (trying to help avoid the deer-in-headlights new players that think they can kill a tank with a carbine and don't know how tough it really is.)

- Who the good guys are and who the bad guys are and introducing the 3-faction system & friendly fire. (Most shooters only have 2 factions, and most dont' have friendly fire)

- How to get into the fight - warp terminals & Instant Action. (changing maps and finding that fight in an open world is yet another significant difference in PS2 from a typical shooter).

That's what it's intended to teach you. If you're familiar with PS2 you probably won't see anything special there, but those are the major significant gameplay elements and while some are common to some games, its different enough that it causes confusion in new players.

I've had several players tell me they didn't know they could sprint or spot until after they took the tutorial. Easy to take that stuff for granted.

[synkrotron]

I did appreciate the tutorial, as it stands, but I felt that it leaves a lot of areas not covered. I'm probably a bit different from the norm though because I had stayed away from FPS games for quite a while and I only jumped back in while joining some mates on BF3 this summer. So, although there are some similarities between the games, I found Planetside different enough to leave me scratching my head thinking, WTF.

I would have liked more information on things like supporting roles and hacking, or fixing a generator for instance and I still get totally lost in some of the larger facilities LOL. But I realise that what I am really after is a "Dummy's guide to Planetside 2" and I appreciate that there is a lot of work required for that.

If I wasn't so busy with other things I suppose I could contribute to the Wiki itself. Perhaps, one day, I will. It certainly needs updating in some areas.

Thinking about it, I think most of my learning has been provided by watching some of the offerings on youtube. Love him or hate him, I've found some of the Wrel videos very helpful, if not somewhat beyond my skill level.

But, please do not take my initial comment as a slight. I appreciate that this game is vast and as a free to play game we do have to rely as much on help from the more experienced guys. And at the end of the day I am now able to make more informed decisions about what I want to do in a given situation. I have to admit that if the in-game tutorial was much longer I don't think I'd have seen it through to the end.

[ChipMHazard]

Speaking of mechanics that veteran players take for granted, I would most certainly like to see the tutorial explain how to switch between the MANA/AV turret and the ammo box. I've seen soo many newish players who refused to drop ammo simply because they had no idea they always have that possibility by switching between that and the turret.

[Taramafor]

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

Speaking of mechanics that veteran players take for granted, I would most certainly like to see the tutorial explain how to switch between the MANA/AV turret and the ammo box.

You read my mind. Not knowing this in the past, I passed a fellow TRG member who commented on how I walked past him without dropping ammo after getting tank mines which put the ammo box in the same slot as the turret. So he told me how to do it and I've never forgotten since.

New players won't be able to get advice from anyone though and will have to stumble around in the dark until it's made clear in game.

Putting it into the tutorial shouldn't be too difficult. Give someone something temporally to put the ammo box in the turret slot and then tell people how to do it.

[HiroshiChugi]

Originally Posted by Taramafor

You read my mind. Not knowing this in the past, I passed a fellow TRG member who commented on how I walked past him without dropping ammo after getting tank mines which put the ammo box in the same slot as the turret. So he told me how to do it and I've never forgotten since.

New players won't be able to get advice from anyone though and will have to stumble around in the dark until it's made clear in game.

Putting it into the tutorial shouldn't be too difficult. Give someone something temporally to put the ammo box in the turret slot and then tell people how to do it.

Well, if SOE does any sort of class-specific tutorial sets, that could be in the Engineer tutorial. Or, it could be put in the description of the turrets that you could do this, not just what the turret is.

[raw]

Originally Posted by Malorn

- How to capture a facility (PS2 is a bit non-standard here due to open world)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^

I just had a minor seizure. What does that imply? That there
- exists a standard
- that is also shit (zero good shooters in over 10 years)
- that it is desirable to go after that standard otherwise people complain
- that PS2 unfortunately can't go there because of design decisions made elsewhere
- but it is still trying to adhere as close as possible to "The Standard".

Don't make Standard games. Make your own game. (Fortunately PS2 enforces that on the devs to some degree)
And no, there is no standard. Only laziness to come up with good ideas.

[Rolfski]

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

Speaking of mechanics that veteran players take for granted, I would most certainly like to see the tutorial explain how to switch between the MANA/AV turret and the ammo box. I've seen soo many newish players who refused to drop ammo simply because they had no idea they always have that possibility by switching between that and the turret.

Exactly this. Unbelievable the game still doesn't explain this. I died from being out of ammo last week because some newb engie thought he didn't had any.

Not sure if it should be part of the tutorial though. Could be easily fixed in the HUD.