This is a thing I want to do. I have an interest in it, and with any luck it can be streamlined to allow for updating it easily to keep with the times.
What I have in mind rn
-I need to get an idea how hard/easy it is to change the building tiles. and to add item spawns.
I looked at the building gens briefly and Im a little confuzzled on a few things, but I should be capable of doing
-Items. Not really an issue of balancing them or making sure the people arent OPed. The point may in fact be to let them play with the best before the worst gets them.
I mostly would want to make an obstacle couse to work people through basic functions. Such as smashing a display rack to make a crowbar and pry a window or door. Most of it would need to be skippable but still the items need some kind of reason and have bounds. We want stable medium-tier weapons unlikely to be changed in the near future.
-How to get out. I love the idea that the player has to blow their way out of the tutorial room.
While the gas tank is fun, vehicles should also be in it. Explosions work too, of course. Perhaps a brief tutorial on ‘how do contruction’ could make its way here.
-New player hints. Perhaps on parchment or on the walls or w.e.
Should include several strategies that cater to several types of players. May include a ‘textbook’ that briefly explains the most common structures in the world? Should take a player into a state of living for a few days.
:[
Im not finding here the actual tutorial room is being defined. Found the mesages and all that jazz, but I cant find were the building is
I agree. Adding a tutorial for new players to kick off in their world, such as by dropping the player into an example evacuation shelter with tips like useful tools to create, how to raid houses etc could also encourage them to keep playing the game and gain interest.
[quote=“pisskop, post:2, topic:11279”]-How to get out. I love the idea that the player has to blow their way out of the tutorial room.
While the gas tank is fun, vehicles should also be in it. Explosions work too, of course. Perhaps a brief tutorial on ‘how do contruction’ could make its way here.[/quote]
In my first tutorial run, a random portal showed up and blew a hole in the side of the wall (spawing a bunch of nether monsters and such. I was killed by a hunting horror while trying to figure out trucks)
…so maybe we could just make that a thing and show the players what the real world is like.
I think it would be kinda funny.
The Tutorial building/start is apparently hardcoded into the game. Still trying to figure out if its possible/easiest to change it that way or just create a mod that adds a ‘sub-basement’ to all shelters. I wouldn’t be able to put all the awesome stuff in it, but perhaps I could still manage to showcase the basic skills and even add like a plastic bottle or 2 of gas.
Perhaps that tutorial was made by the original developer, Whales?
Either way I’m all for revamping the tutorial, and I’d love for you to be given the access to at least give it a shot, you have the drive after all.
I looked at the Kickstarter and it makes no mention of the tutorial being revamped by them so it should be open-source like the rest of the game if possible.
maybe ask devs if they have any idea where to look for tutorial? tutorial is so old that its starting to get little obsolete (guns)
What about a Rogue Survivorish tutorial kind? That when you are near something you can do, it’ll give you a popup telling that if you press shift H, it will leave an snippet of tutorial to help you. I find it’s the best way to do one. It would also be in the normal world.
sounds good
well, it does, until you consider all the start locations and that these pop ups can either be triggered by items/proximity to items or by locations. i.e. all shelters.
Well, they never bother again after you activated them
The tutorial is definitely a rough beast. I struggled immensely with it but was determined to play the game. Luckily I learned through the power of YouTube playthroughs. Which so far has never let me down on teaching me a game!
i played some moderm games with tutorials, most games do not have dedicated tutorial but start of the game is some full of action scenario where player learns how to do things
why do not remove tutorial and make tutorial scenario?
starting place should be field or something (maybe forest?)
in place of player spawn generate lablike structure (but premade and with little less dangeours things) and player is teleported downstairs
player like in oryginal tutorial gets messages about how things work
player goal is to use gained knowledge to escape tutorial
[quote=“Arek_PL, post:14, topic:11279”]why do not remove tutorial and make tutorial scenario?
starting place should be field or something (maybe forest?)
in place of player spawn generate lablike structure (but premade and with little less dangeours things) and player is teleported downstairs
player like in oryginal tutorial gets messages about how things work
player goal is to use gained knowledge to escape tutorial[/quote]
Expanding on your idea, I think the tutorial should be a whole different “gamemode” where you follow the hints in a linear way until you die, by accident or by the tutorial ending. If you die before the tutorial is over it is considered game over and you get the regular post-death popups, and if you die in a linear way the popup “Tutorial complete!” appears and you are thrown back into the main menu. One of the deliberate ways to kill off a survivor would be to force an infected start and trigger death after the tutorial is “over”, or have the player start as an escaped prisoner/test subject with an explosive/electric necklace that is triggered after the tut is complete.
The scenario itself can be a cabin-in-the-woods kind of thing where the player is drawn towards an abandoned wood cabin (tutorial room) and is forced to survive for a certain period of time, helped by hints that pop up when the situation or status are changed (tired, hungry, thirsty, critter spotted etc).
Spawning can be done in various different ways. To name a few:
[ul][] Start at night, spawn character in front of the main building, have light come out of it so the player prioritizes getting inside instead of exploring right away.
[] A log notification/message (“The cabin up ahead seems like a safe place to rest.” / “The mysterious atmosphere surrounding the cabin makes you eager to go inside…” / “You hear a strange noise inside the cabin. Perhaps someone’s inside?”) draws the player to the main building.
[*] Just spawn the player inside to begin with. The least fun way.[/ul]
Or any other combination of the above.
To prevent the player from wandering off:
[ul][] Surround the area with threats like traps or mines.
[] Spawn a large tracking critter (like a bear) right outside of the reality bubble if the player goes too far into the woods.
[*] Let the player explore but trigger death-effect if they wander too far off. Perhaps show log warnings too (“You don’t feel very well. Perhaps there’s some medicine back at the cabin.” / “Your explosive necklace starts beeping. This can’t be good.”)[/ul]
A similar scenario could be a lab / farm in the middle of a massive, endless field. In both scenarios the “ultimate goal” can be repairing a vehicle and escaping. The whole process of repairing a vehicle can teach a player how to do things necessary for survival, such as familiarizing them with the controls, teaching them inventory management, cooking food and boiling water, crafting, combat (a zombie or two in the basement?), hunting, repair/use of vehicles and much much more.
Here’s a generic example:
[spoiler=Tutorial Flow]
Goal - Repair car adjacent to the cabin (missing wheel / missing frames / missing fuel / damaged battery / damaged controls).
Don’t require building new parts, just repairing existing ones or fetching new ones from the basement to keep things simple.
1a. Spawn player at chosen location. Teach basic movement and any necessary controls to enter the cabin (cabin can be locked to teach (s)mashing windows, ©losing and opening doors, peeking and looking around etc).
1b. If spawned at night, spawn player tired and make them sleep. Teach the uses of sleeping, its importance and any other needed tips.
1c. If spawned wounded, teach how to use (a)ctivatable items such as medkits and bandages, or a flashlight if the cabin is dark.
2a. Wake up the next day hungry and thirsty. Spawn uncooked food inside the house (fridge), teach igniting fire and basic cooking (this includes boiling water and its importance).
2b. Possibly wake up cold/hot, teach how to (W)ear / take off clothes and use the layering menu.
3. Require the player to go down into the basement to find spare tools / vehicle parts to repair the car. Spawn a zombie in the basement to teach combat.
4a. Teach how to craft with tools and materials found in basement.
4b. i[/i] Require the player to ®ead books to level skills up in order to continue with the tutorial.
5. i[/i] Spawn a ranged weapon in one of the closets/drawers and a small critter / big critter caught in a trap next to the cabin. Require the player to hunt their food for the next ‘hunger’ phase, teaching how to (f)ire ranged weaponry and (t)hrow throwables in the process.
6. Start the repair process. Teach about the vehicle interaction menu and the options inside it, and possibly things required to make a car work.
7. After the car is repaired, teach driving.[/spoiler]
After the last phase is completed, kill the player; either after the last tutorial note is read, or after the player drives a certain distance away from the cabin, or if they get out of the car. Or just don’t kill them at all, and let them survive on their own. I personally disagree that a tutorial should be a new game on its own and think that it has to be as linear and as restricting as possible, but it could go either way.
What do you think?
All that is fine.
The reason the tutorial is not included as a scenerio is because of how the game places players in the world. If you ever select a starting location that is not available the game will tell you and place you wherever.
So it is not, afaik, capable of regenerating or replacing you until you recieve a valid start location.
In addition, such a place is immersion breaking. I guess you could set up a [paintball arena] or something on the outskirts of town to spawn with irregular frequency . . . Those are fairly common here in CT.
Furthermore, we dont want to force the player to stay and complete the tutorial. It should be readily leavable should the play grow tired of it.
The tutorial building shouldn’t be a part of the regular world generation. Its sole purpose is to serve as a place that teaches the player how to play before they start an actual game. It’s not a regular “cabin” building that spawns naturally in the world, it’s a user-built building in a consistent user-built world.
Additionally, I don’t think the world in which the tutorial spawns should even be “explorable”. I like traditional tutorials where the players have to meet a specific set of goals before they’re allowed to proceed, but still aren’t limited to exploring just one single tutorial room. There needs to be some sort of limit (the areas I mentioned in my previous post), the way the tutorial works right now is literally just like the way a new world is created, except it contains small hints at the beginning. I’d like to remove this vast freedom of movement and make the tutorial the only linear thing in the game. I don’t think new players getting introduced to the game benefit from the tutorial being randomly generated (with on-spawn RNG shenanigans) or a lack of a defined “ending” in it.
You’re right; it should be possible to do just that because, the way I suggested it, the tutorial isn’t a whole new game, it’s simply a little “minigame” in which the player learns how to play. The whole thing would probably last 1-2 in-game days, which isn’t that long of a session and doesn’t really let you grow attached to your character. You don’t get to continue playing after you’re done, nor do you have your progress saved after you quit/start a new game, and as such (Q)uitting the tutorial isn’t as big of a deal as killing off a character you create in a regular game.
In the case that you want a tutorial you can select whenever you need/want to you should create a ‘teleport’ function on the computer in the shelters and make them teleport you to a Z-10 room under the shelter. We’d have to limit the supplies there heavily though, but its work.
The way the current tutorial works is a special building is genned in a world. In no other worldgen option is a build guarentted to be in the game. Its also very hardcoded.
its why i tell to make player spawn on something like forest or field and then generate tutorial on player if we make it as a scenario
while aditional game mode (like we have now) sounds good its hardcoded and i think it will be easier to remove than change
and spawning something in player spawn is possible (helicopter scenario)