"As You Play" Tutorials

Instead of having set zones for tutorials, and forcing the player to learn on the game's terms, why not have a system that checks if the player has come across something before. If it is the first time the player is encountering something, it displays some tutorial text.

Let's say you drop the player at the world map and they had the choice of what to do next. The world map is an easy one. A short note that says "WASD to move. Hold the right mouse button to look around." Player starts moving. Player enters a town hex. The game checks to see if this is the first time a player has entered a town hex. If so, a short note pops up saying "This is a town. To see what the town may offer, move your mouse over the green Town text, below the towns name. If you wish to enter the town, click on Enter Area or press [interact key]." When the "Choose Destination" screen comes up, a message appears saying "Select a direction to enter the town from. It is simply a matter of preference. If in doubt, select the docks or town crier if available."

For combat, the first time the player comes close to an enemy, the game recognizes this is the first encounter and prompts the player to press [combat key] or double click on enemy. When the player gets near a crafting pavilion or any crafting table for the first time, the game explains what they are for. Double clicking on a crafting table the first time, will bring a brief note about that table, recipes, and resources. When a skill levels up, the game prompts the player with "A skill has gained a level. Press the K key to bring up your skills." And then from there it walks them through training/maintaining/untraining a skill.

I am trying to think of a way the game wouldn't have to check to see if this is your first enemy encounter, every time you encounter an enemy. I don't think it would be that much of an impact to the player's game, but who knows. I think trying to track each tutorial for every character in a database would require too much work and engineering.

A good way to track which tutorials the player has triggered and which they have not, may be to include a file in the game on the player's system. The file could just be a list of binary numbers. 0 for hasn't triggered and 1 for has triggered. As the player triggers each tutorial it flips to 1. The game reads the file at the beginning of every play session. This way it can read the list from memory instead of having to access it each time. Once all the tutorials are triggered, then have something in the code that no longer evaluates for the tutorials. Maybe at that point, it does store a value in a table somewhere indicating that the game doesn't have to load the tutorial file. Easier said that done, I know.

I think this system would allow the player to do what they want, when they want it, and still give them helpful advice.

 

The game currently DOES actually give you some basic information, like the first time you arrive on the Novia Continent. And various other things too.

 

I didn't mean to imply that it didn't. I am not stating how tutorials can be implemented in a game that has never had them. I am stating how tutorials can be changed to provide flexibility. Why should a player have to go to a specific spot in a specific zone to get a crafting tutorial? What if the crafting tutorial could take place anywhere the player first encounters a crafting station? Tie the tutorials to the player and not to a specific location.

 

Oh but I've always thought we needed crafting quests. Perhaps starting as a teaching quest then evolving to dailies that progress and give interesting rewards. Fishing hat with stats, a cooking apron and cooking hat. Perhaps doing these is the only way to get the items. You could create a cooking deck with your cooking clothes and items on as an example.

If it is drudgery with uninteresting aspects to it of course many won't want to do them. And of course Get those crafting quests in for those who prefer less non combat game-play.

 

Thats a good idea. Whole crafting questlines would be nice.