A Tutorial, Oversight, Guidence...

[tedrbr]

....for all da noobs!!!

Never fails.  "Dogfights" on television.  People see the ad for flyaceshigh.
Flocks of noobs download the trial.... and enter the war arenas.

They then proceed to ask questions on the Help Channel such as.  "How do I fly?"  "Where is everybody."  "How do I shoot missiles?"   "Why am I going so slow?"   Then there are the people putting enemy spotting reports across the Help Channel.


Very few pilots seem to have the Help Channel tuned in in the larger arenas.... I know I keep tuning it back out after a few dozen of the same questions over and over.  

The (mostly) outdated websites is where I started.  Others use the TA.  But many just jump right in, and this game is a little on the complicated side for that.  Setting up the controls is not intuitive to many.  I lost count of the number of vehicle control problems I've addressed.  


So, it might be a good idea, if HT wants to KEEP these new-found players that are coming  into the game beyond the trial, for them to address or coordinate the hand-holding process, rather than let the baby-chicks wander into the gator infested pool on their own.  

This is also a great source of cannon-fodder for squadrons who want to swell their ranks into uber-hordes, providing they have enough pilots willing to be trainers.

[Schatzi]

To all those willing to ask theres a wealth or knowledge and help available. It requires a minimum effort to do so, i admit that - but IMHO, if you dont make that effort, you wont stick with the game anyway.

Trainers Homepage
Net Aces
The Training Arena
The Trainer Corps
Lots of Vets and Squads that are willing to take new people in and get them going....

[Martyn]

I visited the De-Havilland museum here in the UK. I spoke with some of the staff and they all were very intrigued with the idea of actually 'flying' planes virtually - especially the Mosquito (not surprisingly!).

I also got a lot of interest from people who attend the WW2 vehicle show at Beltring.

Anyway, my point is that HTC might be able to target a different audience - one that is more attuned to the realities of WW2 rather than Star Wars - by doing something simple for museums, historical events etc.

I would suggest a small printed leaflet/flyer with details of the aircraft/vehicles,  some instructions on how to get to the web-site and a small list of flight commands (maybe as a simple walk through to get people up to speed quickly).

The leaflets would be available as a pack of, say, 50 on request. There must be a few places that wouldn't mind displaying them.

=====================

...and maybe the De-Havilland family would sponsor HTC to develop more Mosquito variants - LOL

[Ghosth]

One of the things Warbirds did way back when was to do up a bunch of CD's with the game on it. Then leave stacks of them at air museums, Airshow's, etc. Free for anyone with interest to take one home and try.

If HTC would provide the CD's and a poster I bet there are a lot of players who would take the time to get them placed in good homes.

I don't know what the cost would be to make that many CD's, and ship them to players around the country. But I'd bet that it wouldn't be more than what they are spending for airtime.

There is a LOT of stuff for sale at our local air museum, but darn little thats free for interested partys.  I know if I walked through and found free software I'd take it home & check it out.

[Martyn]

I figured paper was a lot cheaper - and you can download the trial as normal from the web - which'll require a web connection. Also you can print off a step-by-step take-off and fly scenario to get players up to speed quickly. Actually, that would be cool to have on the website anyway.

If there were any 'marketing' types in HTC (I suspect not - thankfully!!!) they could also relate each trial with a code printed on the leaflets (giving the noobs more trial time maybe) - that way HTC can find out where the most effective outlets are.