The Learning Slope

[kfsone]

I've just been sitting with a friend trying to introduce them to Aces High. They left with much head shaking and dubiousness. They won't be playing the game.

Now, this guy has been flying Combat Flight Sim 1 and 2, but feels something is missing. He likes the look of the gameplay challenge of Aces High.

The game, and to a large degree its community, has very little tolerance for "n00bies". Not all "n00bies" are "fragfesters". The trouble is, like you and I, they want to experience combat. And the game spanks down hard on people who do their studies first. Many of you seem to have forgotten your years of WarBirds experience, and think this game is second nature. It isn't.

This is best evidenced by how little of the game so many people manage to learn. They learn enough to get to the fragfest and then stick with that. Not because they are avid fragfesters. But because beyond a certain point, the game starts obscuring elements of gameplay - they are undocumented and you won't find out about them unless you ask about them.

I made this same challenge back in WarBirds...

I challenge you to introduce a friend who likes flying games to Aces High, on your machine - someone you respect, without you telling them what to do -- no "oh, just click that"s or "it does that some times". Make a note of what they spot.

Perhaps your dad, uncle Robert, or Stewart from next door.

Try it. You'll be impressed by how user hostile the engine has become.

The gameplay is fine, but the distance from download to dogfighter is getting too great. It's time to get a technical writer on the documentation, to consider implementing some in-game documentation - be they pop-ups or advisories. Stuff to explain basic stuff, not neccessarily the basics of flight.  Perhaps provide a decent 101.

I don't mean to dismiss the quality work being put into the game itself, but its gradually becoming more and more an AH-pilots-only game.

Unless HTC think that the days of new subscribers is nearly over, or that players who give up on the game from poor documentation wouldn't actually enjoy the game itself, then I think investing some effort in documenting their work so far in a user-friendly way, and review modifications to the user-interface to support that effort will be extremely worthwhile with a view to the longterm.

[popeye]

I think the community is very helpful to new people who have made an effort to learn the game (read the doc's).  It's the people who log on for the firt time knowing nothing, and expecting training in the MA, that can get a poor reception.

However, I agree with the idea that the game needs a well written overview, that describes the various styles and options of gameplay.  The help doc's are pretty good, but mostly technical.

[Wanker]

I strongly agree with you on the part about the community not really giving a rip about the newbies.

Back in the early days of Warbirds, I can remember someone taking me under his wing and spending an hour with me at an isolated base teaching me how to use the radio buffer, and everything else that is crucial to any beginner. I returned the favor to other newbies in due course.

Today, most people that even take the time to reply to a newbie question, do so only  to tell them to either "RTFM!" or "Press Alt-F4 three times". And I can't remember the last time I heard anyone offer to take a newbie to the TA and help them out. I'm generalizing, of course, but it sure would be nice to see more people giving of their time to help one another.

On the other hand, I'm sure that part of the reason some of the old vets don't help is because of the attitude of some of the newbies. You know which ones I'm talking about. The kind that asks a question like "How the Fuk do I raise my gear!?" I admit, I wouldn't help this kind of person, either.

In the end, though, it is our community, and how we act toward the newbies and the vets is going to determine the general atmosphere of the game in the long run.

[Trell]

My dad does fly  she has been flying this game sence beta


Trell

[flakbait]

Lephturn (when he gets back) and I are working on an AH manual that will be available in both web-based form and downloadable PDF file. HTC is tinkering with an AH help file, probably in that Techno-Babble every company writes in. As for general tips and such, Leph's site has some dang good info, and my site has some extras along with a few basic things.

As a side note: I'm still taking submitted writings for a future "How to" section on my site. Maneuvers, tips, tricks, gunsights, basics, aircraft specs & flight tips, you name it I'll take it. Provided you know how to spell and can write without having your 3rd grade teacher pay you a house call  

-----------------------
Flakbait [Delta6]
Delta Six's Flight School
Put the P-61B in Aces High
"With all due respect Chaplian, I don't think God wants to hear from me right now.
I'm gonna go out there and remove one of His creations from this universe.
And when I get back I'm gonna drink a bottle of Scotch like it was Chiggy von
Richthofen's blood and celebrate his death."
Col. McQueen, Space: Above and Beyond
 

[Seeker]

Good, well made points.

It's surly time for a proper manual.

[kfsone]

Excellent, flak.

My first time playing WarBirds (0.9 something I think) I had no idea where to start with the documentation. I read my fill of 'How To' information on just getting the game running. I'd flown plenty of sims and expected to be able to at least get a plane in the air and maybe see one or two other planes flying.

Once I fired the game up, however, it was just totally unobvious what to do next. With a lot of poking and proding I finally managed to get a plane into revetments, and promptly crashed. I made 4 attempts, managed to get the plane off the ground and was promptly vulched from behind. I hit alt-f4 and never looked back.

1.11r2 came out and a work-colleague got me to fly gunner for him on a work machine. I didn't even realise it was WarBirds I was flying. I asked if I could fly a bomber for myself, and happened across RAM1 at the same airfield.

There are a LOT of games out there promising to be a lot of things. I had no reason, at first, to believe that WarBirds was going to be worth the effort neccessary to climb the initial learning curve *until* I saw what made it better than the other games available, and that was only possible through a lot of patience on RAM1s behalf (including not smacking me around for insiting on calling him RAML).

Quite simply, folks are gonna wanna see what's under the hood before they learn how to drive.

Take a look at the CFS2 manual. It starts off by getting you installed and airborne. Then it goes about getting you ready to become a combat pilot.

PLEASE, make sure the manual takes a similar approach. Don't present them with the library of Congress and assure them that once they've read it all, Aces High will be super-duper guaranteed fun. They'll return the book.

Online communities seem to be becoming frighteningly anal about fending off newbies who won't RTFM. I know it's annoying being asked "How do I fire my guns?" or "Do I need a joystick"? But the wrong reaction is to retreat deeper into the "RTFM before you even THINK about coming near my radio buffer" attitude =(

Sorry if I'm ranting here... Nearly 20 years ago I wrote an assignment for school, aged 10, describing a bunch of kids who played massively multiplayer computer games, where they went to a club and each club acted as either a squadron or a single multi-gunned plane. Aged 13 I started writing MUD languages and aged 15 I wrote a multiplayer game server for the Atari ST in 68000 assembler. I am VERY passionate about multiplayer games, and it truly gauls me to see "n00bies" being shunned just because they're new here...

K

[Snoopi]

Hello all !

Except maybe the last 5 months..
I've been flying AH since it was beta and I've always tried to help the newbies.

I unfortunately haven't been able to afford the $45 to fly in the MA for over 2 years, but I still fly H2H.

May guys i've met in H2H games had their 2 week trial run out before they knew what was going on.

Between the jargon and the actual game.. it takes them that long just to get comfortable.
I think if more of these people had 2 weeks of "flying" after they understood what was going on, everyone would benefit.
I gets to be a drag to continually get blown out of the sky while you struggle to figure out what's going on.

A decent manual would be great to help them.
(I usually point them to Lephturn's site)

IMO:

If they STARTED their 2 week trial AFTER they flew H2H for a while they would enjoy it more
and therefore be more likely to stay and pay.

I assume the code could be changed so that you register and fly H2H and then enter the MA for the 1st time which starts the free trial ?

I can't even count how may people missed their 2 week trial since they were practising in H2H before they entered the MA and didn't realize the "lock was ticking"

S!
Snoopi

BTW:  A buddy of mine.."Panthr" is learning the game. I spent some time with him in H2H explaining the views/F10, convergence, radio etc.  If you see him online give him a hand..he's a great guy and it seems he may get hooked on the game and stay.

[ 06-09-2001: Message edited by: Snoopi ]

[kfsone]

Snoopi - want to go post that over in suggestions and I'll punt it for you =)

I know a lot of folks spend time answering newbie questions, but they have to know what questions to ask.