Thoughts.

[Ack-Ack]

Making it mandatory isn't the solution but making it available is. 

You're correct it should be made an option.  In addition, I think it would be beneficial to new players if they had a "New Player" arena, similar in setup like it was in Air Warrior, which would be online that they could enter after they go through the offline training mode or if they decide to skip the tutorial.  It would give the players that decide to through the tutorial an arena of relatively safety (from veteran players) that they could practice what they learned from the tutorial against other new players.  Those that skip the tutorial would also have access to the new player arena and would quickly learn that maybe they shouldn't have skipped the tutorial and go back and do it.

[AKKuya]

I am considering requiring a Login ID to do anything in AH including offline play.

I.E. At game start you must log in/create an account.
This would allow me to do things like force training missions on users and track their progress.

I believe almost all games that have an online component now work that way correct?

What are peoples thoughts.

HiTech

I was in a middle of moving from one apartment complex to another when this thread started.  I needed some time to think about this.

Forcing new players into a training mission to learn the game is a very good approach.
Questions.
1) What format(s) will you implement in teaching them the game while they play by themselves?
2) Will these formats be step by step through visual and audio directions?
3) Will they be progressive in learning the vast amount of knowledge to allow for better experiences once entering into the Melee Arena with the experienced players?

Let's say I win the lotto and have money and time to kill.
1) I would start a small business in a very good retail location and put in a fully loaded Aces High setup in a prominent place within the store.
2) I would hire some young people who are masters in the social media world.
3) I would have them learn the game and setup personal game accounts and forum accounts here.
4) I would be having them create video instructions of the game placed in YouTube being tagged in the social media platforms. (plus original content on current game news)
5) Myself and few others knowledgeable about the game would be in the store acting as ambassadors to customers when seeing the operation.

The key point is person to person contact rather than a voice in your headset.  Sitting next to a prospective player and explaining the fundamentals of the game, that would go a long way.

We are all for new ideas to get more players.  There should be very well though out plan to keep them.

 

[Ack-Ack]

His main issue was he thought he was top 10 in the world but was actually just another noob. He spent most of his time telling everyone how good he was.....

Training will not help someone who thinks they are the best there is. He blamed the game for his lack of training yet he was not interested in learning anything.

Yes, SAAMIAM did at first think he was an experten when he first started because of his previous experience in another flight sim.  It's not an uncommon thing, I felt the same way due to my experience from Air Warrior and Warbirds when I first started AH.  It took a week of getting my butt handed to me that I figured it might be a good idea to learn the game instead of thinking I was king because I was good in AW and WB.

SAAMIAM is trying to learn the game and to get used to the flight model and other intricacies of the game.  When he's in the same area as I am, he asks if he could fly my wing so he could learn.  To me, that shows he is willing and wanting to learn and I think if there was a new player arena he could fly in along with a tutorial, he would jump at the chance to take advantage of it.

[Wiley]

I agree no one is going to want to sit through a long training film when they are chomping a the bit to get in the air.  And if they did, they'd forget most of it.  People can only handle little nuggets of info at a time.   

Do you think it would work if the video were chopped up into bite size ~1m segments and interwoven with flight?

Like the game is pauses in flight, the clipboard comes up, the side panel flips out and a 1m video explains what you need to do in the next step.  Hit esq to continue.  That closes the clipboard and you fly on until the next check-point and then rinse, repeat?

Could be, but why bother with a video when you can just have some text come up on screen to say, "Press E to start engine."  "Getting too slow will cause your plane to stall." and like such as.  It makes it a lot less stop and go.

If you're thinking in terms of BFM, what would be more effective, a video of a plane doing a loop, or flying through a few rings set up in a loop configuration?  Or something along those lines...

Now that I think about it, what you're talking about is pretty similar to how driving school worked in GTA San Andreas.  It wasn't bad.

Maybe a video with the text of the explanation alongside it, so if they forget something from the video they don't have to dick around with rewinding.

Wiley.

[DmonSlyr]

His main issue was he thought he was top 10 in the world but was actually just another noob. He spent most of his time telling everyone how good he was.....

Training will not help someone who thinks they are the best there is. He blamed the game for his lack of training yet he was not interested in learning anything.

Well, that's besides the point. My point was that he had to fly for what seemed like a far time consuming distance to get into any action, then would die quickly when he did find the action. I feel like this a a typical situation for any noob.

While I think an AI arena would be okay in the beginning. These guys still want to fight against and with real people online. That's why I think a 2 week feeder arena on a much smaller scale arena would work out pretty well for noobs to get the hang of the game at a faster pace. This would allow players to get into the arena and fight against other noobs quickly, while being able to ask questions as well.

I really think it's something that AH is lacking. The MA is a big world for these new guys.

[CptTrips]

That's why I think a 2 week feeder arena on a much smaller scale arena would work out pretty well for noobs to get the hang of the game at a faster pace. This would allow players to get into the arena and fight against other noobs quickly, while being able to ask questions as well.

I agree pretty much.  But you're assuming it is always populated?

I'm a new player, I download, install, get dropped in a noob arena....and it's empty.  Silence except for the wind and a lonely tumble bouncing across the runway.

Not a good first impression.

[Vraciu]

Could be, but why bother with a video when you can just have some text come up on screen to say, "Press E to start engine."  "Getting too slow will cause your plane to stall." and like such as.  It makes it a lot less stop and go.

If you're thinking in terms of BFM, what would be more effective, a video of a plane doing a loop, or flying through a few rings set up in a loop configuration?  Or something along those lines...

Now that I think about it, what you're talking about is pretty similar to how driving school worked in GTA San Andreas.  It wasn't bad.

Maybe a video with the text of the explanation alongside it, so if they forget something from the video they don't have to dick around with rewinding.

Wiley.

This. 

“In auto-takeoff mode landing gear will retract automatically.   You can manually select gear by pressing the G key.”

“Select autopilot mode by pressing...”

[CptTrips]

Maybe a video with the text of the explanation alongside it, so if they forget something from the video they don't have to dick around with rewinding.

That's definitely the drawback of a video.

I suspect you would want to use a mixture of methods. 

There are certainly actions that fit in to a one-liner of text.  There are other things I'm not sure it could handle. 

Like explaining how to remap controller buttons and axis.

Like how to pan and zoom the map to find a dar bar to determine where the action is.  How many paragraphs would you need to explain what you mean by a dar bar as opposed to seeing the video do the operation and then highlight in the picture what you are calling a dar bar.

I think you'll need more than a hammer, because not every problem is a nail.

$0.02,
CptTrips
 

[Vraciu]

That's definitely the drawback of a video.

I suspect you would want to use a mixture of methods. 

There are certainly actions that fit in to a one-liner of text.  There are other things I'm not sure it could handle. 

Like explaining how to remap controller buttons and axis.

Like how to pan and zoom the map to find a dar bar to determine where the action is.  How many paragraphs would you need to explain what you mean by a dar bar as opose to seeing the video do the operation and then highlight in the picture what you are calling a dar bar.

I think you'll need more than a hammer, because not every problem is a nail.

$0.02,
CptTrips

Doesn’t mean you need a sledgehammer for everything—or much of anything. 

An interactive overlay is going to cover the important things that frustrate people into quitting. 

[FLS]

No point quibbling over details since there aren't any yet.

Everybody seems to think it's generally a good idea.   

[DmonSlyr]

I agree pretty much.  But you're assuming it is always populated?

I'm a new player, I download, install, get dropped in a noob arena....and it's empty.  Silence except for the wind and a lonely tumble bouncing across the runway.

Not a good first impression.

I feel like If it auto fed people in there it wouldn't be unpopulated. Plus I think noobs actually would go back in there during their 2 weeks. If it was a small team death match arena, i think noobs would have a good time on it. Bases should be no further than 10 miles apart.

All it takes is about 4 people in a room to get it to pick up pace. Once you get 6-15 players in there, its a lot of fun.

Did anyone notice that Ack Ack and I actually sorta agreed on something for once! How about that! 

I also think Key board loading screens that show what the buttons do also helps a lot. You see this in many popular games.

[Easyscor]

If I remember right, the first time when entering with Oculus, there are over-lays for each Touch controller. I always wondered but never checked to see if the controllers work with every plane. Somehow I doubt the older models work in that scenario, hope so but if not...

A beginner's arena can turn down the base ack and assign the newbie the mission of killing the enemy base ack. Gains flying skill while getting some target practice on stationary objects.

Perhaps a series of lesson arena, practice take-off, kill some targets, landing, beginner's early combat.

[Easyscor]

I feel like If it auto fed people in there it wouldn't be unpopulated. Plus I think noobs actually would go back in there during their 2 weeks. If it was a small team death match arena, i think noobs would have a good time on it. Bases should be no further than 10 miles apart.
...

See the new Combat terrain based on one of Pokie's AHI terrains.

[CptTrips]

If I remember right, the first time when entering with Oculus, there are over-lays for each Touch controller.

Don't get me wrong.  I love those VR controller call-outs you see in various games.  That is a very elegant system.  However, I believe that is probably provided by the device sdk.  He just has to stick in the labeling he wants.

That is somewhat different from what is being suggested here. 

Those call-outs are always there and there is a fixed number of buttons that need to be labeled.  And the labels are static.

In this case, the callout come and go.  They need to be dynamic.  Which means they need to be scriptable.  They need events to inform them when to show and when to hide. 

The following is not what you'd have in a beginer training, but the idea is the same: https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,397806.msg5273544.html#msg5273544

Your training mission would need to script those call-outs to show up at a certain time in the mission and you probably don't want to blast them all up at once, so there would need to be script/event structure to say "show a call-out on control X at t+1:35"  Then OnCLick event to tell the system to close that call-out and show the next step in sequence when the button is clicked.  Etc, etc.

So you'd need a scripting and event system for every button and listbox item on the UI and some identifier for every control widget on the UI so you can refer to them in your script and invoke a call-out, as opposed to a video where you have graphically annotated stuff with existing tools like:



I know there is some stuff like this in the mission system but I only remember seeing controller button and axis events etc, but I don't see anything involving the clipboard UI wigets.




So, if that kind of capability already exists, could easily be created, or he was planning on doing it anyway, then rock on Garth! 
If not, it sounds like it could be a lot of work to implement a new framework. 

But as someone else said earlier,  ANY in-line training you can put in front of a new player is going to be a huge benefit.  I'd say sooner the better.  If a perfect system would take months and months to implement, then I'd suggest simpler approaches you could do quicker first.  See if it starts to pay dividend, THEN refine.

Nothing is chiseled in stone.  I'm sure training would evolve over time.  Later, simpler versions could be replaced with slicker approaches. 

Perfect should not be made the enemy of good, and sometimes a less perfect solution that arrives on time is superior to the perfect solution that arrives too late.
 
$0.02.

[Molsman]

A new arena for players checking out this Game would be great. in my Other adventures with online games I could not enter any person to person battles with out passing the training segments for that game. Dale I know you are trying your best to grab new players and all so this Training arena would have my vote make them do certain points before they move on this is the only way new players can learn this game you want to make them feel wanted and to stay. The game I am in now whenever they come out with a new segment ie helicopters and naval battles before we have the chance to go live we go thru walk thru on how the vessels work and the way the guns and aiming work and to me this is a Major plus to keep players.

Granted before all the new graphics and types of playing styles where here to the millennial's We as an Aces High Family evolved from Air Warrior War Bird and others that is why the veterans of this Game are so close cause we started from ground Zero and Worked our Ways up. I would hate to see this game die since I have also spent close to 20 years here but I needed a change and new venue.


Also the games have e finally opened up to the Xbox and play station consoles
<S>
Molsman