An idea for improving the Tutorial

[Fiffer13]

Hey everyone,

Been reading a lot of topics on here about this need. I think we can all agree that after the current on deck update that we’d like the NPE improved in an update after it… But development resources are likely tight at best, so how to do this with as few new assets as possible.

First I would suggest starting new players on a single player world to complete the tutorial on. This first single planet could be generated during the installation time of boundless (this is likely the hardest part in my suggestion admittedly).

The tutorial would go through it’s normal ropes, up until it tells the new player to complete a feat or objective. Instead it will ask them to make a copper grapple, walk them through that. Next a copper slingbow. Then a copper shield. Now they are ready to teach more combat.

Then the first minor thing needed to be added, a level 0 meteor. This will have only 3 portals that drop 1 wave of enemies, none of these enimies are high level. Once defeated, the core will drop a minimum of 18 rough oort shards. Maybe some text explains normally they would want help from other players to do meteorites with in the future.

Next they are walked through making portal fuel (maybe also introduce them to mass crafting at this time as well), and connecting their first portal. Then they are asked to return to the sanctum. They talk to the elder who informs them they have found worlds beyond this pocket dimension that they can travel to now (the MMO worlds), and ask if they wish to travel to this new area (their progress on single player will be saved, and that would be communicated as well).

Now maybe their items and levels are reset by traveling to the mmo, or maybe we let them keep their starter gear and initial levels. (I would have it so crafting or console cheats in single player didn’t open up until after the choice at the elder was made). When they join the boundless mmo (if they ever do) they complete a “welcome to boundless, completed tutorial part 1” objective and get a couple thousand coin (yes thousand, it’s a drop in the bucket to what the minter has added to the economy by just the dedicated player base) and that starter gear they crafted (copper tools/weapons)

Their next tasks on the mmo would be things like, complete a feat or objective by finding a shop stand, buy or sell an item, travel to another world, apply to join a guild. Then once all that is done, give them the part 2 tutorial bundle, which would maybe include a few hundred more coin, and a non basic beacon fuel, and maybe some oort shards so they can make their first 1x2 portal on whatever planet they decide to build their first base on (since they did already learn how those are made normally).

This update shouldn’t require a ton of development as i tried to only include things that already exist, and minor changes to those to help walk a new player through. I think this will give them a better grasp on more of the game, but will also set them up to play with others if/when they join the mmo worlds.

[bucfanpaka]

I totally agree… some sort of T0 tutorial world could be very helpful and solve some of the major complaints. I’ve thought a lot about how this could work in the past - I see reviews where people are put off by how slow the gathering is at the start, or they land in a very claimed region and can’t find what they need… or land on Beckon and get trapped in the water! So have some prefabs with NPCs to learn about stuff like shop stands and portals. Have the blocks much easier to break, and maybe bump up base movement speed.

Let them gain some knowledge and levels on a T0, knowing they won’t keep what they set up there, that it is just to learn, might head off some of that.

[Gorillastomp]

They need to thin the tutorial, its all over the place and hard to follow at first. Best would be to seperate the tutorials and the challenges.

Offline planet for tutorial would be great then once acomplished you have acces to the online universe.

[Apt]

it could be made as the new character is dreaming. the tutorial could consist of several sanctum-size dream maps with scripted events. (each skippable)

would be a good idea that the 1st they see isn’t a half plotted, half messed up bit of boring wilderness with a floating treetop, but something that shows what is possible (nice tutorial village or something similar)

[almund]

tutorial needs less text

[boundmore]

could be divided into a few separate tutorials (a different portal in sanctum to each of them); each portal leading to different area with some NPC characters, locations when needed (only use of NPC I would personally accept in Boundless) - the tutorial NPCs could be copies of known players/backers and locations could be copies of known builds (shops, portal hubs etc)

1. LEVELING: showing how most activities give xp, plus feats and objectives; skill point spending and all that
2. LAND OWNING: plotting areas, how campfire and beacon work with perms and all; prestige, home beacon and master beacon options etc. so these can be understood
3. CRAFTING BASICS: handcraft, table furnace, basic machines, spark and fuel; basic tools (hammer, axe, shovel, totem, sling, spanner)
4. MINING/GATHERING: to walk through how resources and regen work; plants and fungi as much as seams; also to point out occasional drops of some resources from blocks
5. EXPLORING: when time to move farther after crafting basic tools and machines and mining/gathering first resource nearby; explaining icons on radar - especially the capitol, portals and players on it; explaining the concept of regions, biomes; how to use warp augment and get to different worlds; how to create and set up first portal; point out other players already have existing networks and that they are free to use blah blah;
6. HUNTING: different creatures, bows & fists and the new weapons; how to fight individual ones and a low level meteor for trying; need to be explained how higher tier worlds have more and more difficult mobs
7. ECONOMY: so, shops; how to sell and buy and also set up own stands and baskets; coin from objectives, feats, tax when buying/selling and all bits and bobs around that; interacting with others here?
8. HUNTING: how to, when moving to new more dangerous worlds, to deal with stronger mobs; show first simple meteor to solo; give idea about slings versus fists and the new weapons as well as bombs

Finally advanced ones including in-game systems that make it game-within-game. These could become available after reaching certain milestones when playing.
9. FORGING
10. FARMING
11. COLOUR CREATING - so goo colour mutating and mixing pigment
12. EXO WORLDS
13. SOVEREIGN WORLDS

Well, anyway, I think every bit of tutorial could point out skills (essential and useful) in each of the aspects of the game. When learning mining advice to pick power, hammer epic, zeal and energy epics, luck etc. On forging bit show 3 essential ones of course first of all.

Making that list of important game areas to learn I realized how much the game grew in complexity over the years.

This would be my ideal tutorial; a lot of work would be needed and at this stage I will be happy to see any developing done (249 first of all and maybe 2-3 bigger updates next year).

[Redlotus]

I love all of this. To add:

1. Create a tutorial city. The tutorial should lead the new player to that city. That city should have some tutorials there and also have portals to all homeworlds (at least T1-T3) so a player could choose which world to play on. If not a portal to all the homeworlds, then at least a detailed tutorial explaining they can warp to any planet they want etc.

A lot of things @boundmore mentioned are actually in the “text-based” tutorial in the game. Not completely to the extent mentioned, but quite a bit of it. I think the tutorial system just needs an overhaul with a lot better visualization. There were parts of the tutorial that were very confusing for myself and some of my friends that just quit the game.

I also think any progress made in a tutorial SHOULD be kept and anything created should also be kept.

Lastly, the biggest issue in a game touting itself as an MMO is visibility of players. I had many people quit as they said they never see anyone in game. I mean we all know that people are playing, but the universe being as big as it is (which we all love) tends to cause people to feel alone. The only real fix I can see for that is to fix the DAMN CHAT. That lag time for new users really makes you feel alone, I know as I it was the same for me. I typed something and never got an answer or response … pretty annoying for new players.

[Fiffer13]

All good points. I’m glad we are all bringing different ideas to the table. If you can explain something with graphics or doing something over text that is helpful, if you cover the majority of systems at a surface level they can see the complexity as they go. Things done in stages, where as the current tutorial is about 8-15 min long, maybe a little longer, but not just text dumps. I don’t like super long tutorials, 30-40min is the most time I tend to be ok with. Is that enough for this game? I don’t know, but I’m trying to make youtube content that takes less than 40min to cover at least a surface level go through of the major systems, so I’m committed to it lol.

Do i agree with all of the ideas we have, well no, a lot of them (even many of my ideas in the op) take more dev time and resources then i think we have atm. But, i think each one would help a not insignificant number of players understand and enjoy the game quicker. So it’s my hope that the devs read and get their own ideas going based in part from our ideas and help make the first few hours more representative of the game as a whole to new players so they can see the awesome game quicker, or see if it’s not for them for legitimate reasons.

[Stormsoul]

I do like that the tutorials now happen in-game (on real planets, in the flow of the gameplay) because it feels more immersive, but yeah it can definitely give a very bad gameplay/visual experience depending on the starting area…

As a thought, how about starting off on a custom local Tutorial world that is accessible from the sanctum area as another dedicated portal, where you learn the ‘basics’.

The Player is then notified of available tutorials at an interval or when certain triggers or criteria are met, and could then Return To Sanctum and do these tutorials and gain the xp/coin rewards for doing so, whenever it is convenient for them. The portal back to their current game location would stay open for them to return through at any time.

[Eneitgranny]

I like that idea, that you could choose to go to the tutorial planet from Sanctum, and there be different places to teach you different things, so you could start - then go choose a planet to build your first home base, then chose to go back into tutorial to learn how to farm, or forge, or hunt, etc.