Tutorial - creating a new and updated one for beginning players

[JDodger]

It should be a basic play guide that scales with the experience of the player. "Heres how to be a Knight," "heres how to be a Lord," "a marshal," etc

[Wimpie]

It should be a basic play guide that scales with the experience of the player. "Heres how to be a Knight," "heres how to be a Lord," "a marshal," etc

Well, this is what we have now, but severely outdated:

• http://battlemaster.org/tutorial-1/1.html
• http://battlemaster.org/tutorial-2/playing.html

Would you use a similar layout/approach and just enhance it with up to date screenshots and information, or go for an entirely different approach?

I think it's best to hear from inexperienced players in your realms to hear what would really be helpful.

[Wimpie]

I've tried contacting every new player in the realms I play in, but only like 2 of them reacted. And they did not really use the Tutorial.

Anyone else who knows of people with different experiences?

[JDodger]

I wouldnt use that either. Too slow too much extraneous detail. Ill try to put together an opening chapter as a sample of how id build it

[Wimpie]

I wouldnt use that either. Too slow too much extraneous detail. Ill try to put together an opening chapter as a sample of how id build it

That'd be great, thanks.

[Gildre]

Sooooo I signed up for MandF a while ago, and watched the video tutorial. Then I thought, "Why do we not have a video tutorial for BattleMaster?" and so I decided to screen capture the creation of a character and how to understand the basic system of the game. I made a throwaway account (I apologize for this, the character I made I deleted immediately after, and I will delete the account if we like the video idea/don't need to change it. The account will not be used for anything else).

I basically just made a character, and then went through the menus one by one and explained the basics of what goes on. I figured that would be a good way to ensure all the general stuff is covered. I figure a video from YouTube could just be embedded somewhere on the site that is accessible for new players. Maybe we could add a tutorial tab on the family page above "Wiki" or something? Embed a video, have helpful links, etc...?

Anyways, tell me what you guys think. The video is a little longer than I think I want (20 min) but hit me with your feedback. I could always make a bunch of shorter videos (i.e. one for Messages, one for Information, etc...)

https://youtu.be/eVzFrasoK2k
Hit me with your feedback!

[Wimpie]

Hi Gildre, this looks awesome! I love the idea.

I'd even put it up like this, already looks great. In case we want to finetune it:

General Remarks:

1) First remark, VERY GOOD IDEA. I like the idea of video tutorial.
2) I would definitely cut it up in pieces. That way if certain pages/functionality get an overhaul or look different in a month or 2, we can easily remake the video.
3) Did you create a new account on live? Let's be careful with that. We have a test server where we could actually make this happen without actually creating new accounts on the live server.
4) Good voice!


Content remarks:

Character Creation:

5) Age of character - this is your starting age. It influences whether you start a young inexperienced (read: basic to no skills), a moderate or an older char (already has decent skills). Your character ages over time. But at this moment, age does not have any effects on further playing the game, it's mainly role playing aspect.

6) Unit type/name - Units come and go. These are the troops you command. If you go into battle, they can get killed and your can recruit a totally new type of unit and name them differently. It's not something permanent.

7) Continents - Show the different maps? Visualisation is often best way to get to know things, no?

General Layout of the website:

8) I'd actually start off with explaining that left is the navigation bar with the different menu items you will explain. Below is the status bar with your char name, hours/gold, region you're in and unit information. Then explain the character page where you get an overview of all this information in the page itself (when clicking your character or unit name).

Messages tab:

9) If we cut it into parts (menu items), we can be more elaborate on the options you have in sending messages (army, hierarchy, rulers, government,..)

10) Show off the preview button?

Information tab:

11) If we split up videos, we can again be more elaborate on this. Like saying bulletins are good to read when starting. See continent maps, where we are etc.

Politics tab:

12) Short, might be good for a tutorial.

Travel tab:

13) Yes, it's a turn based game. Explain when turns are run? (6am/6pm CEST time)

Actions tab:

14) More elaborate on what classes there are? Could be done if we decide to split into multiple videos.

Orders tab:

15) Because we are travelling, there's little we can do. Show this before we are travelling? Again, if we split this up, we can set up scenarios so we can explain the options we want.

Status page:

16) As said, I would move this up front, before we explain much else. Otherwise explained very well.

New Messages section:

17) Note that you can also simply click the (1) next to 'Messages' which will direct you towards the new messages instead of going to the Messages page first :-)



18) I'd also explain the mentoring forum.

Otherwise I'm very excited about this project. If we can finetune this and set up some more clear scenarios where we can explain the options we want, that would be great.

I'd even set this up already somewhere, next to the tutorials so it's already available. I'm looking at Vita & Delvin for that.

[Gildre]

17) Note that you can also simply click the (1) next to 'Messages' which will direct you towards the new messages instead of going to the Messages page first :-)

I straight up did not know that haha! Sending you a PM now.

[Anaris]

For the purposes of building a tutorial, I have absolutely no problem with someone creating a new account on live, provided they a) contact me about it first, and b) either delete the account once the tutorial is done, or give me the login info so I can make it a quasi-official "tutorial account" that we can later mess around with to create more tutorial content.

[Gildre]

Well, I completely apologize and hope you will let rule 1 slide lol.

I will message you and Wimpie the login details.

[JeVondair]

I really can't praise this effort enough

[Gildre]

Character Creation: https://youtu.be/bBeXDxZMEeU

I also have the Messages one uploaded. Can someone please check them out? Tell me if the audio is abysmally quiet. When I watch them on YouTube they are quiet as hell. I just want to make sure I am not crazy.

I am speaking pretty loud into the mic, so I gotta figure out what is up with this. Pretty sure I might have to remake these vids. They didn't seem as quiet on VLC though... I dunno.

EDIT: I just did some reading and apparently YouTube "normalizes" volume, and I just have to wait a bit for it to be done. This actually kind of makes sense, since I have no trouble hearing that first video I did a week or so back. That one is probably normalized and these ones are pending or something. Still hit me with feedback though!

EDIT 2: I just made the Information video with my gaming headset that has a mic. Came up super loud on VLC, we will see how it uploads. If the other videos don't get louder, I will edit them to boost the volume and re-upload them.

[Wimpie]

This is very very quiet to me. Can't even hear if on my laptop with 100% sound etc. Only when I put my ear next to the speaker, I hear your voice.

[Gildre]

Information: https://youtu.be/ijClqgpP4Wk

I did this one with the headset and it is way louder. I will try to edit the volume up on the other vids, if not I will have to remake them with the headset. I just had to pick up my sick kid from school though so my quiet day off just got loud lol. I will have to continue on the project another day.

[Wimpie]

I like it! Volume is definitely good on this one.

Content for Character creation one is also good by the way. I listened with my earphones and it was do-able if not too many noise around me & you put your volume at 100%.