10 replies to this topic

[Tarogato]

I know you're always looking for ideas, and I've got one for you. Might be a bit of work, but should be possible. After the obstacle course and basic targeting, Adams should run you through basic torso twisting.



The section could initialise by putting both you and Adams in open ground with some distance between you facing each other. Your legs will be locked into place, so you can only twist and turn. Adams says he'll shoot you in the right torso and you need to turn away so that he can't hit it.

- if he hits his mark and your right torso takes damage, Adams yells at you to twist better to shield the torso.
- if he fires a volley and your right torso takes zero damage, you move on.



Now he's going to shoot you in the CT. You have to twist to both sides to tank with your entire mech so that the CT takes minimal damage.

- If your CT takes a certain amount of damage before you mech health reaches a threshold percent, Adams yells at you to twist better and makes you try again. "No, no! You have to twist away so I can't hit that juicy center of yours!"
- If your percentage health reaches the threshold before your CT takes a predetermined amount of damage, then he says job well done and you move on.



Now you have to shoot back. Adams will fire on your CT. You have to deal a certain amount of damage to him with your weapons before he kills your CT.

- If after a certain amount of time Adams has done a predetermined amount of damage to your CT, he'll yell at you to twist more. "No, no! You're making yourself an easy target. You have to twist more!"
- If after a certain amount of time Adams hasn't taken enough damage, he'll yell at you to shoot more. "This isn't worth anything if you aren't shooting back. You need to hurt the enemy, too!"
- If Adams manages to kill your CT before you do a certain amount of damage, you have to start over. "Well that was pathetic. But I'll let you try it again until you get it right because that's why they put me in here."
- If you deal the amount of damage required, you pass this section of the tutorial.

Edited by Tarogato, 24 November 2015 - 08:49 AM.

[Poonbahbah]

Sounds like a good suggestion to me.

[Dave Forsey]

That's another approach I considered. The issues relate to the time it takes to do a step by step tutorial - not only the "right" path - which often involves a whole lot of edge cases that weren't foreseen, but all the ways people will/can/intend to break the flow. The self-training/challenge approach has the added advantage that it doesn't get consumed as quickly. A step-by-step tends to be done once.

But you've given me an idea - In the gauntlet, the player could get those warnings when the CT is hit (rather than just in the blurb at the beginning that few read)

[Tarogato]

Oh, speaking of the gauntlet. It would be nice to get forewarning of when mechs are going to pop up. Even as an experienced player I can't get through the gauntlet without memorising the dummy locations and predicting when I need to twist away ahead of time. If those mechs could be on radar before they come into view (perhaps you could establish some UAVs in the surrounding areas?), then the player would have a better chance of reacting to the threat. Some of those mechs are placed in nasty sneaky locations! xD

[Dave Forsey]

What I want is 'Mechs that follow a path and have some perceptual limitations and some rudimentary AI so they don't popout at all *and* you can't memorize their locations.

[LordKnightFandragon]

Twisting is odd. Ya twist away to avoid damage, you look back to fire, get hit cuz the guy is now reloaded.....

[zudukai]

Dave Forsey, on 24 November 2015 - 08:58 AM, said:

That's another approach I considered. The issues relate to the time it takes to do a step by step tutorial - not only the "right" path - which often involves a whole lot of edge cases that weren't foreseen, but all the ways people will/can/intend to break the flow. The self-training/challenge approach has the added advantage that it doesn't get consumed as quickly. A step-by-step tends to be done once.

But you've given me an idea - In the gauntlet, the player could get those warnings when the CT is hit (rather than just in the blurb at the beginning that few read)

you mean, Cptn Adams over the "radio" saying the twisting stuff?

if so, that sounds like a good plan.

[LordKnightFandragon]

Ya cant even do that tutorial in a mech like the Dire Wolf, Mauler, or any of those huge *** slow mechs.

[iLLcapitan]

Great idea, this could really help starters!

Maybe it's enough to set up a static mech/turret in the middle of a circular arena, which fires a constant beam (low dmg) at the the player, so they get more time to realize where the damage goes according to their movement/twisting.

Could be set up in different stages, from an open arena to navigating around (low) obstacles while getting shot etc.

Edited by iLLcapitan, 01 June 2016 - 10:21 PM.

[SlightlyMobileTurret]

LordKnightFandragon, on 01 June 2016 - 08:48 PM, said:

Ya cant even do that tutorial in a mech like the Dire Wolf, Mauler, or any of those huge *** slow mechs.

I get what you mean, but ...

My experience in Dire Wolves (with their CT) -- twist in an assault mech or die over 80%. The thing is, you need to compensate for the low twist range with leg positioning. Sure, can't control precisely in a DWF or a BNC like you can do with a Griffin, but torso twisting MUST be done, and makes a heck of a big difference with big boxes with legs (aka assaults)

Torso twisting is an essential skill regardless of weight class

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Tarogato, on 24 November 2015 - 07:48 AM, said:

I know you're always looking for ideas, and I've got one for you. Might be a bit of work, but should be possible. After the obstacle course and basic targeting, Adams should run you through basic torso twisting.



The section could initialise by putting both you and Adams in open ground with some distance between you facing each other. Your legs will be locked into place, so you can only twist and turn. Adams says he'll shoot you in the right torso and you need to turn away so that he can't hit it.

- if he hits his mark and your right torso takes damage, Adams yells at you to twist better to shield the torso.
- if he fires a volley and your right torso takes zero damage, you move on.



Now he's going to shoot you in the CT. You have to twist to both sides to tank with your entire mech so that the CT takes minimal damage.

- If your CT takes a certain amount of damage before you mech health reaches a threshold percent, Adams yells at you to twist better and makes you try again. "No, no! You have to twist away so I can't hit that juicy center of yours!"
- If your percentage health reaches the threshold before your CT takes a predetermined amount of damage, then he says job well done and you move on.



Now you have to shoot back. Adams will fire on your CT. You have to deal a certain amount of damage to him with your weapons before he kills your CT.

- If after a certain amount of time Adams has done a predetermined amount of damage to your CT, he'll yell at you to twist more. "No, no! You're making yourself an easy target. You have to twist more!"
- If after a certain amount of time Adams hasn't taken enough damage, he'll yell at you to shoot more. "This isn't worth anything if you aren't shooting back. You need to hurt the enemy, too!"
- If Adams manages to kill your CT before you do a certain amount of damage, you have to start over. "Well that was pathetic. But I'll let you try it again until you get it right because that's why they put me in here."
- If you deal the amount of damage required, you pass this section of the tutorial.

I love it, and you could put that in ahead of "Running Cored" in the crawl-walk-run order.