Maybe it is time to re-do the tutorial? (in General)

Let me start off by saying that I do not in anyway mean to present myself as a CB expert. I speak only from the point of view of someone who recently started the game and found the tutorial to be... lacking.

I came to CB really wanting to like it. The tutorial taught me the very basics of the game. After reading the Wiki and asking some questions in Chat I was pretty well on my way. I think that is part of the problem though. Since I joined wanting to like the game I was willing to read a half hours worth of Wiki entries to get a feel for what the game was all about. Had I just been someone who randomly clicked a link, like a friend I tried to introduce to the game, that may not have been the case.

Maybe if the tutorial went into a little more depth about strategy. I think there is a fine line between too little and too much information. Let's be honest most people new to the game won't want to go through an hour long tutorial detailing every minutiae of the game. It just is really leaning toward the bare side at the moment.

Just my .02

Would it be better if the tutorial gave suggestions for strategies that may be useful at lower levels?

I would also like to see the tutorial point out the fact that certain spells do not help DD users and some do not help tanks. Also the fact that DD spells override melee and ranged weapons.

To put it briefly, yes some strategy advice would be good.

I don't know if it is possible to do this, but if you trained things it gave you some information on them and asked for confirmation. Something like I go to train Fireball "Fireball takes precedence over any melee weapon you have equiped and does ____ (blurb about the type of damage it inflicts), continue?" Or with Archery "Training Archery past 25% of your DX gives no return, continue?" Something like that would allow people to toy with the skills/spells that sound interesting to them while still giving them the information they need to make an informed decision.

Here's the golden question -- what made you want to like CB?

I've played a lot of MMORPGs before. I needed a new one that wasn't horrible, but that I wouldn't get completely sucked into (thanks World of Warcraft). I actually had read the Wiki/forums prior to signing up. Based on what I saw there I had decided that I was going to like the game.

The Wiki/forums being linked on the front page is _great_. I still don't think that in most cases they make up for where the tutorial is lacking.

Also informing people about EXP splitting between all the minions would be a good point for our tutorial if it doesn't do this - and it seems like it must not - I know it tells them to hire minions...but as of now a lot of newbies just think 'if I can have more people on my team, then why the heck wouldn't I??'

I'm with ya here, Jennicide! ^_^ A better tutorial would be great.

Heh, I stayed because I saw someone bragging in chat about how his CoC did massive damage! 33k!!!!! I was like omg... I'm gonna do that one day =P

I just talked with another new guy. Who said the Tutorial was very poor and barely explained the game. I think the tutorial could probably be sprussed up a bit.

*spruced

"I actually had read the Wiki/forums prior to signing up."

Next super-NUB, here we come!

I hope you make it to the top, Jenn. If your learning curve is considerably smaller, you might just have a chance. Heck, you might even want to try to get into BR.

The following links will give you the current tutorial, feel free to talk about it and all give tips for improvement. (perhaps this should then go in a new thread?)

part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
part 6
part 7
part 8
part 9
part 10
part 11
part 11a
part 12
part 13a
part 13b
part 13c
part 14
part 15
part 16


note: if someone notices one or more links not working, please let me know so I can fix it :)

I'd have to agree about the tutorial. Almost none of the information was available from it. I could only make out what to do from the help. Reading the wiki is all well and good, and the tutorial does refer you to the welcome page, but it could maybe stress how important it is or something. I dunno. I was really lost til I looked through it for a while.

also, it'd be nice if the tutorial told you about the Get More BA link, that would've been very useful to know about ahead of time

That is a very good point...

Shade, that last link is dead

lol true, that last file didn't exist... fixed :)

Would it be possible for an Admin to send me all of the files that drive the tutorial?

Perhaps something about Weapon Allowance and Tattoos should be in the tutorial as well.

Jennicide, you have all the screenshots, what more would you want?

(i.e. Jon won't send sourcecode)

I was thinking that with the help of others I could redo the tutorial. The HTML side of it, at least. If Jon then wanted to integrate that into whatever else he uses to make the tutorial function then so be it. To do that it would be great if I had the HTML that made the tutorial run. I could get that by going through the Tutorial again myself, but I would have to start a second account and that is against the rules.

This game is written (mostly) in TCL. Html is just the outside layer...

You can just rewrite the tutorial as plain text and send it to Jon, with explanations of which page triggers which text. The screenshots from Shade should help with that quite a bit. If you want tutorial text on a different page or text that's triggered by a different action, then just mention that. Like:


After sending your first CM:
"Hurrah! You've just sent a CM!"

After getting "dwarfed" the first time:
"Now you know what happens when you don't pay attention. You should really read the directions and watch the tutorial here: (wiki link)"

After getting "dwarfed" the second time:
"Seriously, now. Forging is simple, but it's not easy. You have to pay attention to where you are in the forge cycle, and make sure you don't over heat or over cool your item. Reread the forging information here: (wiki link)"

After getting "dwarfed" the third time:
"Ok, maybe forging just isn't for you. Here's some cash to make up for your lost time. Try again when you can find a player to walk you through it." (Send $500 to player)

etc etc.

Use your imagination.

Also, every tutorial text entry should be prefaced with a link to your mentor... I have no idea who my mentor was, and I never really ever knew. I just used Sefton after about 3 months of going nowhere with my NUB.

Or, even better, link to your mentor on the home page so that it's always accessible.