Tutorial Badly Needs to be Expanded

[Cyttorak001]

Per this thread: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/battletechs-tutorial-weaknesses.1087420/

We've seen many different streams now, and a common feature among all of them (except maybe Bombadil's) is that the players don't understand maybe even 50% of the game mechanics. The thread I linked goes into more detail, but to summarize:

• Evasion, and removing evasion chevrons
• Braced doesn't stack with forest, and most players don't seem to understand this. Braced is also twice as good as cover, and they don't understand that either.
• Heat management
• LINE OF SIGHT! What do the different icons mean? LOS vs weapons range. LOS for you vs. LOS for your enemy, etc.
• INITIATIVE! Demonstrate the benefits of reserving. Demonstrate the problems with reserving.
• The interaction of 'Mechs and pilot skills. And for that matter, more info about pilot skills, period.
• Etc.

When coupled with the easy intro missions, players are coming away with the idea that they're adequately prepared for more difficult missions, and then finding out that they're disastrously wrong about it.

I think the game would benefit greatly from turning the Mastiff/Kamea/Player intro battle into an expanded tutorial, since there are no lasting consequences from that mission.

 

[bajrex]

Also, will the tutorial be optional? I'm all for expanding the tutorial, but not if I'm going to be forced play through it whenever I start an new game

 

[shorty84]

Also, will the tutorial be optional? I'm all for expanding the tutorial, but not if I'm going to be forced play through it whenever I start an new game

Well, it introduces you to the story... so I guess the tutorial won't be optionial.

cheers

 

[ronhatch]

There are two basic categories that I see... interface and tactics.

Interface would be better served by having on-screen visuals that point to the specific element that's called out, and is a fairly easy thing to toggle on and off as a UI option. It's also something that really shouldn't be tied into any kind of story elements, since our interface is presumably not what the in-game character would see.

Tactics generally makes more sense with the kind of story tutorial that they've gone with, but definitely needs expanding. Some of that happens when the player gets to the open part of the game and can talk to characters with tutorial dialog... but given the missions that happen before that, the player shouldn't have to muddle through quite as much as what I've seen on the streams.

Combining the two categories in an overall strategy is ideal, naturally. When the first full mission starts, the interface tutorial (if on) should draw your attention to the skill bar and call out the fact that a portion of it depends on the specific pilot... with the tooltips, this would likely lead naturally into the player exploring the skills Mastiff and Kamea have. Mastiff then saying something about Initiative and Reserving when combat is first joined would tend to build naturally on that.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

There is a whole lot a Tutorial can show, a whole lot it can be expanded.

But what has HBS focused on here?

What do we already have?

In the tightly-focused tutorial already in-game, we are clearly taught to MOVE and to SHOOT.

We are then refreshingly given Allied BattleMechs and pointed toward combat.

We then get to MOVE, SHOOT and learn by watching our Allies.

I really like how crisply this all comes together.

If anything more is needed, I would hope it could be found in the Skirmish Mode, and perhaps just such a hint might find its way into the game. :bow:

 

[Manwue]

Watching the streams, I see that even after hours of play most people do not know what most buttons do, what armor and structure is, and what tactics work. This is a failure on the game's part to explain things adequetly. It does not have to be a tutorial, but it does have to be something that explains how the game works.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

Watching the streams, I see that even after hours of play most people do not know what most buttons do, what armor and structure is, and what tactics work. This is a failure on the game's part to explain things adequetly. It does not have to be a tutorial, but it does have to be something that explains how the game works.

I don't expect a tutorial to teach which "tactics work."

Plus ALL the Streamers very quickly grasp how to repair both Armor and Internal Structure. Same with the buttons a gamer-new-to-BATTLETECH needs to play the game, ALL Streamers have grasped those as well.

BATTLETECH was always going to be a game with layers of depth. A tutorial need not hand-hold a gamer through all aspects, buttons and tactics the game makes possible. That was never intended.

Proficiency sufficient to play the game, as the current Tutorial and pervasive Tooltips show, is largely intuitive.

Proficiency sufficient to master the game, as it should, will only come in time. :bow:

 

[ronhatch]

The biggest thing that ALL of the streamers I've seen have not understood is the initiative track. Everything about it. What those numbers up at the top of the screen are, how turn order is determined from it, and why you might want to reserve.

(Not saying they haven't grasped bits and pieces of it eventually, just that I think it needs a little more explanation up front when you first get multiple units.)

 

[Cyttorak001]

snip

In the tightly-focused tutorial already in-game, we are clearly taught to MOVE and to SHOOT.

We are then refreshingly given Allied BattleMechs and pointed toward combat.

We then get to MOVE, SHOOT and learn by watching our Allies.

snip

Pardon me?
The player is controlling both Kamea and Mastiff. At no time are they instructed to reserve. We already know the AI doesn't (won't? can't?) reserve...that's the subject of entire threads. The end result is a bunch of players wondering "hey, what's this reserve button do?"

MOVE and SHOOT.
In other words, players know just enough to get them into trouble. They don't know enough to get them out of it. This is quite clearly demonstrated in the streams. Also demonstrated in the streams is players' general unwillingness to learn at a quick pace (Cohh excluded). They need to have their hands held as they walk through some of the intermediate topics or they won't address them at all. In the late game, that will lead to frustration unless the difficulty is nerfed. If it's nerfed, that will kill the replayability unless there's a difficulty setting like Ironman.