I have little idea for tutorial system. As we know some games have difficult controls and gamplay so it is quite difficult for new player to start play. So there is my thougts: 1. As far as you dont know what class/chapter/etc you want tutorial must be after race chosen but before class/warband decision. 2. You are taking tutorial only if you want. 3. If yes - you are starting as smallest character in the game/lore such as scout/cultist/ork boy/etc. 4. Tutorial consists of some banch of tasks that needs to be accomplished by different tactics, ways such as range combat/stealth/assault/etc. 5. Suggested class for player is generated considering results of tasks accomplished (in TES Morrowind for example you taking some questions, here it will better to do this in mo dynamic manner). From this we have: 1. You can choose class more affordable to your game style (if you don't want to use suggested youcan choose any). 2. If character will not be binded to class - you will learn how to deal with any of it. 3. Due to tutorial you will learn different aspects of the game. That is all for now, if you have any other suggestions or ideas - will be pleased to see
What I would like to see is a for each race to have its own, specifically tailored tutorial, and a race-specific manual that the player can read at any time. It would serve to introduce people to the mentality and strategic mindset of their faction, as well as the game's controls in general. The manual, on the other hand, would serve as a comprehensive in-depth documentation of the race and its capabilities, for people who would prefer not to take the tutorial or want a more in-depth look than the tutorial offers. For example, imagine a faction of common humans who have weak infantry armor and weapons, relying on courage, determination, and bloody huge tanks to win the day. We'll call this imaginary faction the Imperial Guard. The Imperial Guard tutorial would go over lasgun marksmanship, basic individual movement and squad tactics, how to use cover, how to deploy heavy weapons, and how to crew vehicles. It would also go over all their basic classes and their abilities. At the end, you'll get the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer that covers equipment, tactics, and strategies in-depth, cross-referenced with relevant Departmento Munitorium regulations, field manuals, and technical manuals. This would all be conveniently compiled into a single in-game manual that the player can read at their leisure. If you skip the tutorial, you still get the manual and can read it whenever you want.
Tut should be quite quick tho, not like Eve tutorials, takes forever. however you should be rewarded for doing it if you choose to (nice purity seal for my scout... etc)
One thing I would like to stress is stat transparency. We should have everything we need to mathhammer. Being able to see actual stats and knowing how those stats interact (multipliers, stacking mechanics, scaling formulas, etc.) is a tremendous tool both for adjusting loadouts and giving feedback on balance. Planetside 2 hid its weapon stats when it first launched, providing just a simple bar rating that didn't seem to have any concrete relation to the actual stats. Providing meaningful feedback on how they were balanced was very difficult, involving finding a friend who would let you shoot him for a few hours and a lot of guesstimating. They've improved since then, but a lot of factors are still hidden, such as armor multipliers and HP values. This has made providing meaningful feedback on vehicle weapons very difficult, especially weapons where multipliers play a large role such as the Phoenix and the Striker. As a result, vehicle/av balance discussions among the playerbase still consist of finding a friend to shoot at for a few hours and providing very rough guesses based on hits-to-kill.
I guess I could copypaste the bit about stat transparency to its own thread so people can discuss it further there (in fact, I think I'll go ahead and do that). Though if you mean the faction-specific tutorial and manual, that already has its own thread. Trust me, we're going to want a tutorial from day 1 of open beta. Might even be a good idea in closed beta. And preferably a manual too. A complete manual that is kept up to date with patches. Starting Planetside 2 with no tutorial was extremely frustrating, and it was very hard for me to convince people to stick through the newbie phase while I tried to talk them through it. And their wiki was an abomination. It was woefully incomplete at launch, hasn't been filled out much since, and is still three or four patches out of date.
Simple ) Our suggestions - the only our weapon to have what we need in game. I agree with idea in thread. Tutorial must be race specific. And main purpose of tutorial, i think, that players need to know what to do, what they can do, and how.
It's not in preproduction, it's in production. grigdusher posted a thread last week about two fans who stopped by the studios and actually played an alpha/prealpha build of the game.
