Author Topic: Showing newbies how a proper crew operates  (Read 5983 times)

Offline Electric Donkey

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Showing newbies how a proper crew operates
« on: November 03, 2014, 02:05:00 pm »
Hello - I just picked up GoIO yesterday (having never heard of it before) and although just engineering on a ship with equally inexperienced randoms for the first hour or two was entertaining in its own way, playing with an experienced captain who knew how to fly and how to communicate clearly was a completely different experience.

If a new player joins during a surge of new players and doesn't play long enough to wind up on a ship with a GoIO regular, I can imagine they would never see just how fun the game can be.

In the interest of retaining more new players, if something could be done to show them the potential of teamwork as soon as they get into the game then more might stay.

Two ideas come to mind. The first should be easy and quick to implement, though at the expense of interactivity: just record some staged footage from the perspective of an engineer/gungineer where the captain gives orders (with light explanations). The clip could begin with no enemies in sight, so the captain tells the crew over voice comms to search the skies for ships. The recording player would pull up their spyglass and after a few seconds they'd spot a ship and then verbally report it to the crew. (Maybe it would be some distance away and the captain could tell the player to buff the main engine to close the gap faster.) Then some more instructive orders like "Man the gatling to take down their armor. When the hit markers turn red the gunner will take out their hull with the mortar."

I'm sure you get the idea - just have a concise video that shows how a proper crew operates and gives some flavor of the game's mechanics without drowning them in details about ship builds and tactics (or other captain concerns), and then have that video playback the first time a new player clicks on the Tutorials button. Really I think videos for each role might be nice since you can rewind a video and watch it very easily, whereas the tutorials have text which a player can accidentally skip and then only see again by running through the tutorial all over.

The other idea would be to have a more elaborate interactive tutorial which basically runs the player through a scenario like the video I described, complete with canned audio orders from the AI captain. However this would be much more time intensive to implement, and really the goal isn't to teach the player how to perform a particular task, it's to show what it's like to be part of a well-oiled flying death machine - so I think a well made video would serve nicely.

As it is the only video I bothered to look up before playing was the Total Biscuit video, which did more to illustrate the complexity of the game than the fun of the game.

Cheers

Offline sparklerfish

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Re: Showing newbies how a proper crew operates
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2014, 02:34:40 pm »
I really really like this idea.  Teamwork and communication are what elevate this game over all other online games in my opinion, and it can be hard to expose newer players to this if they don't already have a friend who plays to show them the ropes.  Anything to help communicate the so-very-important concept of "teamwork is OP".

Offline HamsterIV

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Re: Showing newbies how a proper crew operates
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2014, 02:34:48 pm »
A video series showing how a veteran crew operates would be a fantastic idea. Most GOI videos are from lets play people doing first impressions. Their ignorance of the game mechanics is often staggering. Unfortunately the videos of the more popular Youtube personalities will still be more visible due to Youtube's algorithm. The best GOI videos are the commentated tournament play even though you don't get much of an idea what is going on at the ship level.

Offline Omniraptor

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Re: Showing newbies how a proper crew operates
« Reply #3 on: November 03, 2014, 07:00:54 pm »
Actually the total biscuit video sold me on the 'flavor' of the game really well, with all the star trek quotes and stuff. Also because brits are inherently better sailors ;)

But yeah, experienced players streaming or just recording matches would be really nice.

Offline Crafeksterty

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Re: Showing newbies how a proper crew operates
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2014, 08:14:19 pm »
A good example of how veterans operate would be nice.

You seen my videos? Not at all exemplamentory.

Offline IvKir

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Re: Showing newbies how a proper crew operates
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2014, 03:54:53 am »
Hey! You can always jump as spectator in any match and look how crew operates, with, say, guide for engineering you can actually see and learn what and how they do stuff.

Offline Squidslinger Gilder

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Re: Showing newbies how a proper crew operates
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2014, 05:00:26 am »
Chem Chem Chem Chem Chem Chem ZOMG REBUILD!!! Chem Chem Chem Chem Chem Enemy dead yet? Chem Chem Chem Chem Chem Chem Aww...its over already? Boo, now its boring....Match 2!...yay! Chem Chem Chem Chem Chem Chem Chem

There I've just saved you a lot of time developing storyboards. Just do the filming and you'll be done.

Offline Schwalbe

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Re: Showing newbies how a proper crew operates
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2014, 07:24:57 am »
I remember, that the "Epic Comeback" film (it was named this way, I suppose?) made me buy this game and play. This might be quite a nice example for someone new, and what that crew done is actually amazing. ^^

EDIT: This one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYABZsEwY30 , however, this one is from earlier version of game...