... even more newbie friendly !!!

[spacetrace]

it would be cool if we could say that !

we think ST is a cool game which can be fun for many sci-fi fans: we try to make it more newbie friendly (professors, starting fleets, simple register...)

Do you have more suggestions ???

[mjx1]

This is a community game with people making online-friends all the time so please post regually in the forum go into the chatroom but please dont multy

how was that?
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"Although the constant shadow of certain death looms over everyday, the pleasures and joys of life can be so fine and deeply affecting that the heart is nearly stilled by astonishment" - Dean R Koontz

[Runemaster]

In a lot of online games there is a training session. Here you can learn the basic skills needed

Maybe it could work for this game aswell

[mjx1]

hmm how would we do that we allready have a TO accadamy
_________________
"Although the constant shadow of certain death looms over everyday, the pleasures and joys of life can be so fine and deeply affecting that the heart is nearly stilled by astonishment" - Dean R Koontz

[spacetrace]

[mjx1]

i think that would be a very good idea admin
_________________
"Although the constant shadow of certain death looms over everyday, the pleasures and joys of life can be so fine and deeply affecting that the heart is nearly stilled by astonishment" - Dean R Koontz

[admin]

and we need a lot of tips and hints by the animated professors.
they should help the newbies in every situation with a specific tip that helps in that situation.

for example: you have just finished your first dsp, the professor sais:
now send your probe to a player that you want to observe. you will see the fleet constellations that are in the scanradus

[lilkrnboi1018]

dont u think ur holding their hand and putting on a safety helmet, shoulder pads, and knee pads? the should also learn through trial and error, the most successful way to learn in a game

although bein a lil newbie friendly is good, i think maybe we goin overboard?

y is ma sig tiny now?
_________________
PWNAGE!

Gotta love the Magnum (RE 0-3)
Or the Eagle (RE 3)
Leader of DEFIANCE
The grounds are soaked... with your blood!

[mjx1]

i think maybe we should provide some kind of calculator where people can key in tehre fleets and the calculator could calculate there success rate if you think that other one is making it too easy

the signatures are so small because the admin thinks they were too big before and i think his got a point with some players sigys
_________________
"Although the constant shadow of certain death looms over everyday, the pleasures and joys of life can be so fine and deeply affecting that the heart is nearly stilled by astonishment" - Dean R Koontz

[Liderant]

one of the things noobs dont like about this game is the lag of images and animations. Thats why an animation for each battle report would explain things like the battle order in an entertaining way.

Idea:
-make a 2 dimensions animation for each ship moving, firing and exploding.
-make it like 30*30 pixels
-make an animation for the diferent actions. (example: an animation for jaming)
-make a frame for every subbattle (example: your class 2 vs enemy class 1)
-make a frame for every action:
40 troikas separate into 120 ships
29 shields generated
23 units repaired
8 clone-ships clone fighters

The idea is to use the basic animation of each ship but using as a variable:
1-the number of ships
2-the ships against they are fighting

So the plan is to mix all those little animations to make an animated battereport that will vary depending on the battle situtation.

I am not sure how to program that, so i would like to have help of the admins. Those who can make animations like compu_head are welcome and needed to help.

There should be like a buttom to see the animation, so slow computers will not have to see them.

I thing this will be a big improvement to the game so ill really like that this idea takes a better form with your opinions.

Reply to this idea:
http://www.spacetrace.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=49000#4900

greetz, Liderant

[lilkrnboi1018]

i think the sigs are a bit to small.... but w/e now they aren't enormous
_________________
PWNAGE!

Gotta love the Magnum (RE 0-3)
Or the Eagle (RE 3)
Leader of DEFIANCE
The grounds are soaked... with your blood!

[Achilles]

I think a training session would be a good idea. You can set up several different scenarios, and have the new player go through them.

1. Attack an enemy, both have identical fleets of basic ships.
2. Attack an enemy when the enemy is missing class one, only basic ships again. Other than that, fleets are the same as scenario 1.
3. Attack an enemy when the enemy is missing class one and two. Again, player has the same fleet as other scenarios.
4. Now player has two fleets, enemy has one. Both have only basic ships, but player can move ships between both fleets. Player can do this as many times as he needs to, and would be encouraged to try different clearing tactics.
5. Enemy now attacks player with two fleets, and player has to set up a defense with the ships he has. Still only basic ships. Player can do this as many times as is needed.

I suggest only basic ships in these scenarios, because they are the most important. As they play, they will slowly get introduced to new ships, and can learn them as they go along. I think one of the most difficult aspects to get used to is the different class battles, C1 vs C2, C1 vs C3, etc., and that is why it is focused on.

Also, in addition to this combat training, player gets one dsp. The player can send it out himself to his enemy before the tutorial. He can see how to read probedata, and will have to configure his fleets according to what he sees there.

Also, the player would get a battlereport, which would be valuable as well.

After this, there can be a phase 2 training program, where a couple advanced ships are introduced. Not too many, just one or two, and they are specific scenarios.

(If you put too many on there, and let them make any fleet they want, too many people will run the battles through the machine instead of figuring them out on their own. I would hate to have my enemies make counterfleets to my fleets using the training program!)

Some scenarios for phase two.

1. Enemy has 10 cyclopses, player has 1000 fighters.
2. Enemy has 10 cyclopses, player has 2000 fighters.
3. Player has 5 apollos, and various other ships, and is to attack his enemy with basic ships: 1 100 1 1 Player is encouraged to figure out how to take out all 100 destroyers with only 5 apollos.
4... etc...

Every scenario would start with a paragraph or two, explaining what the scenario is about. The enemy should be able to be attacked immediately, but the fleet should still be sent. I suggest creating a "training mothership" with warp 50, or putting the sectors really close together, so the fleet is there within seconds. In the scenarios where the enemy attacks the player, they should have an eta of five minutes, or another amount of time sufficient for reaction.

I am probably missing a lot, but this is a start anyways.

[T2]

A battle simulator would also be a big help determining what "works" not only for new players but for all players who have said..." I wonder what if ...."

It would help take some of the guesswork out of trying to fit fleets together.
I realize that fleet composition is the heart of the game but for a new person trying to get all the ships figured out is quite daunting...takes some time,...time that some new players don't want to dedicate

Let the new guys (me) put fleets together and try them out in a simulator before giving away all my points to someone then saying.."woops...I won't try that again".

The really frustrating thing I found was a few days later...someone would kick my butt using something similar to fleet I lost with a few days earlier.

I don't understand all the syntax's yet. With a battle simulator, I don't have to understand the syntax, I'll just try it out first

[Kirby]

Some Dutch speaking newbiehelpers can be handy 2.
Lately I saw quite some new Dutch people, with terrible English, so I checked the newbie helpers, but couldn't find any who speaks Dutch(Bad English talking Dutch people will prefer their own language).
You can improve that.

Extra idea:

Can you make a begin message for the players that when they have questions they can talk to the newbiehelpers, and then the whole list of newbiehelpers + their language.
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