Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: daddog on February 22, 2005, 03:18:43 PM
-
Was helping a new player in Aces High the other night. His call sign was T2A or something like that. Anyway he politely asked me a question which I answered. I told him I would be happy to answer any other questions he had. He was very grateful and asked several more. He went on to say that he had received some help from others, but more often than not people would just ignore him. I told him I would be willing to help him any time, gave him my e-mail and our squad channel.
My first idea was putting a little sub script “H” by the players names who would be willing to help out any newbie to game? Anyone playing the game just a day or two would be bound to ask what does that “H” mean by some peoples call sign and undoubtedly someone would tell him those are the players willing to help out anyone new to the game.
Lets face it. I would guess that many new players just jump in the arena and want to fly without spending much time reading the FAQ or the basic AH manual. You could even put in a pop up MOTD for newbies telling them to look for players with a subscript H by their call sign if they need any help.
Or
My second idea was having a permanent “help” text channel that all new players could have automatically tuned to. Then you could have experienced players who are willing to help tune to that channel. This of course would be an alternative to having a subscript H by a players call sign.
I remember a long time ago stating I would be willing to help new players, but I rarely get asked anything. Is there a way for new players to contact those willing to help?
-
IN for the help chanel as long as there is someone to mod and eject / mute people who are not helping from it.
-
Good point dedalos. Maybe who their moderators are they could be told to tune to the help channel every time just in case. :)
-
Sounds great Dad. Im in as well. Not sure how much I could be...but I'd be willing to try.
-
Originally posted by daddog
Good point dedalos. Maybe who their moderators are they could be told to tune to the help channel every time just in case. :)
I think I missed it. What I mean is, it would have to be moderated to keep the ALT-F4 people and the once that would be there to make fun of newbs, out of it.
-
rgr dedalos. I agree.
I think the more ways we come up with to help the newbies the more we will see numbers grow. :) If some players are willing to help out with part of their time then the tools should be built into aid the newbies toward a positive experience.
-
Now the question is, what happens when someone asks a question and four guys come up with six different answers? lol
-
How about this. Instead of asking HT for changes, lets pick a chanel number for the help chan and ask HT to post the number in the MOD window.
-
My second idea was having a permanent “help” text channel that all new players could have automatically tuned to. Then you could have experienced players who are willing to help tune to that channel.
Cool new Idea. I like it.
-
I'm willing to help when I don't have any squaddies on. I'll usually answer any questions on 200 or country. There is a section for new guys to ask for help not sure if they would know how to get there though anyway, heck I can't remember off the top of my head how to get there. Sounds like a good idea though daddog.
-
Liking the help channel idea. I try to answer questions asked on both country and ch 200. There are a lot of folks with very simple questions that most anyone who has been around for more than a month knows (i.e. don't have to be an expert to help out). Answering these questions can be a huge help in reducing frustration.
The biggest problem with answering questions currently is that it's easy for your answer to get lost in all the scrolling text...especially if it is more than one or two lines. Especially if your a bit verbose in your answers lol.
Zaphod
-
Great Idea DD. I'm in also !:aok
-
I understand the need for help. But isn't that exactly what the training arena is all about? An entire arena set up for new players to learn how the game works and of course trainers who spend there time in the trainning arena to help train and answer questions. Do we really need a decited channel in the MA for help when an entire arena already exists?
-
You ever get excited about a new game and just start playing without reading the instructions?
I have. I would say most do.
A single dedicated channel would be an easy way to get most folks proficient enough to want to continue their learning in the TA.
-
Very cool, thanks HT. I'll hang out on this channel whenever I'm on.
Can this channel have it's own unique color?
hell, I just want more channels altogether :) Multiple vox, 800 tunable text channels, etc ... I'd fill them all!
-
Originally posted by Furious
You ever get excited about a new game and just start playing without reading the instructions?
I have. I would say most do.
A single dedicated channel would be an easy way to get most folks proficient enough to want to continue their learning in the TA.
NO, I learned a long time ago to read the instructions twice and to take advantage of training areas for learning new things. The Offline game works pretty well also.
I truly beleive that if a decitated channel is added to the arena for help, that it will have several effects on the game. One, no one will ever use the training arena again. Two, wrong information will be distributed about the game, because the people answering the questions are wrong.
One good thing about the training arena is the trainers in the arena all know the game. No miss information is being distributed.
A good example:
Last Saturday night, while attacking and trying to capture a field, a question was asked on a squad channel : "does every building in the town have to be down, even the indistructable building?"
One response was "there are no indistructable buildings in a town", the correct answer, but not presented forcefully enough to be considered right.
a second response , very forceful indicated that there were indeed industructable buildings in the town and it didn't have to be down, the wrong answer.
The squad spent 30 minutes and 4 sets of troops before they figured out that all buildings in a town had to be down.
-
Originally posted by Traveler
O, I learned a long time ago to read the instructions twice
I don't even do that with power tools.
One, no one will ever use the training arena again.
Lot of difference between going to a training area and asking questions inside a game you are already playing.
Two, wrong information will be distributed about the game, because the people answering the questions are wrong
As I understand the presentation, the people answering the questions will be experienced people who have volunterred..uhh.. volentierre....uh.. said that they would be willing to answer questions on the "HELP" channel
The squad spent 30 minutes and 4 sets of troops before they figured out that all buildings in a town had to be down.
Probably shouldn't be joining a squad that doesn't know what it is doing. :rolleyes:
See quotes #1 and #2
-
something else that might help them is since HTC knows who is new they could have the MOTD come up for those with some information on how to get started.
1)how to pick plane and start engine
2)how to pick a field where combat is going on
3)how to use radio
4)info on how captures occur
5)how to go to TA and/or link to the instructions
I think those are the most common questions I see and could get the newbs rolling.
-
Traveler,
Maybe I misunderstood this post too so appologies in advance.
TA is for flying. The chanel will be for asking questions. Some times while in the game, you may have a question. A simple one but one you don't have the answer to? Should you have to log and go to the TA and ask? The TA is some times ampty you know.
"Do we really need a decited channel in the MA for help when an entire arena already exists?"
How does have this chanel effect your game play?
-
All comm channels are on a decitated server as I understand it, I may be wrong. it's just more data traffic on a server, we experience lots of lag now, it's just more data traffic, there has to be an effect somewhere, no? People ask questions now, if I know for sure, I answer them, if I don't know for sure, I say I don't know.
-
Traveler, the lag you speak of is not from the servers being loaded down. Just FYI.
-
Originally posted by Traveler
All comm channels are on a decitated server as I understand it, I may be wrong. it's just more data traffic on a server, we experience lots of lag now, it's just more data traffic, there has to be an effect somewhere, no? People ask questions now, if I know for sure, I answer them, if I don't know for sure, I say I don't know.
thanks for helping Traveler, appreciate all the help people give
the thing is with a dedicated channel, it will cutout most of the Alt-F4's , hit enter 3 times, crapola answers that get throwed out to the new players. If we had a dedicated channel, the new players would get the right answers because the others would not waste their time trying to watch a 4th or 5th channel just to give a crackpot answer, If people do try to give stupid wise crack answers, I am sure HTC will provide a means to mute such individuals or boot them out of the arena for say 30 minutes for being a jerk to a new customer/player
-
I was thinking along the lines of questions that are like.....
How do you drop the hook in a carrier plane?
How do you select and fire rockets/bombs?
How do you change gears?
or more lately....How do you make your bailed out pilot move?
etc.
Many of these questions are asked by both new folks and others who have forgot/never knew because they have only been flying planes for the first month of their career in AH etc. This channel would be great for those questions I think.
Questions on this channel could easily lead to trips to the TA for some one on one instruction. This in my opinion would lead to a better playing enviroment for all of us....less frustration = more fun every time.
Zaphod
-
Hey Daddog :)
An off topic question...
Do you have Ghosth's new e-mail? If yes, would you please mail it to me at "rasmus_friluft@yahoo.se". That way I'll get both your mails to my new mail...
-
Great idea! I'm in the TA a lot and would have loved this option my 1st few days. Now when I try to help new guys I normally pvt talk to them and have to go through the process of telling them to type in name, etc... This would be great b/c I could just say click on 1st box and click "newbie channel". Or I guess they could be automatically on it when they 1st log on duh:D Hitech, I hope you give this some serious consideration down the road.
-
OMG its ALIVE!
Smatter, too much ice on the rocks to climb em? Ran out of pretty girls to chase?
Email is winging your way btw bro.
-
I think biggest help would be reminding peeps on the download page that the game CAN be tried offline--ya arent usin up ur 2 weeks tryin to figger out why plane wont start or some similar crap--download page ALSO might remind peeps that they can alt-tab out of game to go to the link that has 90% of the common commands
-
Traveler you can't change human nature. You might read the directions twice and spend hours and hours in a training arena before you jump into the "game", but 90% of the players will not do that. Unless HTC is willing to restrict where new players can go you will always have newbies in the MA and other arena's.
Also you can't expect players to learn it all in two weeks or even a month. There will be questions for weeks and weeks about how to do something in this sim. I have had squadies that have been playing for over 6 months ask me things that you and I may take for granted. One squadie was playing for over a year and never knew you could zoom in on the clipboard with out making the clipboard larger, till he asked how we were seeing the things on the clipboard he could not.
I truly beleive that if a decitated channel is added to the arena for help, that it will have several effects on the game. One, no one will ever use the training arena again.
I think your wrong. There will always be a need for the training arena and a simple help channel in the MA would not end its efficacy.
If we had a dedicated channel, the new players would get the right answers because the others would not waste their time trying to watch a 4th or 5th channel just to give a crackpot answer, If people do try to give stupid wise crack answers, I am sure HTC will provide a means to mute such individuals or boot them out of the arena for say 30 minutes for being a jerk to a new customer/player
Took the words right out of my mouth. :)
Hey Wilbus! :)