Heroes of Steel - Question for Friday - Game Training

[fallen]

Alpha team,

I'd love some specific feedback about the "game training" dialogue in the first part of the story, specifically dialogue that is <<Do this or tap that>> queues. We are working on emphasizing that in a different color.

1. Too much? Too little?
2. What did we miss?
3. Try to imagine not having played the game for the last three weeks

[John Robinson]

First impression. Looks good. I have only just crossed the bridge and finished leveling so it's pretty early yet to comment, more to say after a couple of run troughs. If it is currently in the Normal Difficulty game, you might want to take it out of Normal and above,  leaving Easy as the introductory tutorial

[fallen]

@johnrobison - we are not sure which difficulty someone will play first, so it's hard to pull it. We thought as it is, its pretty unobtrusive ... because the game is pretty easy to play, once you get the pattern (sort talents, use talents).

Thanks for the feedback! +1

[Lesleyr]

Would recommend leaving it in the normal too as that is the game's default setting and an invitation for players to start here.

[John Robinson]

fallen Lesleyr

Yeah I wrote all the text down last night. I agree, you both are right

What do you think of pulling it out of difficulties higher than normal? First time players are probably not likely to start there. I think once HOS gets released, you will see some forum posts to take it out of insane etc levels, so they don't have to tap through it to get started.

But then again, this is your in game documentation, and might increase in size after release. I really believe first time purchasers will not start at insane, and regular members who do will get their answers on the forum if they miss out.

Either way I cheerfully vote with you.

[fallen]

John Robinson - the first member of the game press to start playing our game started on Nightmare.

We are instead looking into a "Skip Intro" option that would appear once you had created your first that would drop you at the chest instead of having to play through the whole prison sequence.

[johndramey]

Nov 24, 2013 16:53:14 GMT -5 fallen said:

John Robinson - the first member of the game press to start playing our game started on Nightmare.

We are instead looking into a "Skip Intro" option that would appear once you had created your first that would drop you at the chest instead of having to play through the whole prison sequence.

That seems like the best idea right there, just have a prompt that pops up on a new game saying "Would you like to play through the tutorial?" and maybe emphasize that there will be no lost experience by skipping the tutorial. Players will then be able to do exactly whatever they feel like, and everyone will be happy.

I'd say that the current pop-ups are pretty ok. I'm not sure if I've seen them all (I'm just escaping from the keep itself and entering the tunnels) but I think they have been fairly unobtrusive so far. If you could set them apart by having them in a different color it would be nice, but as it is with the << >> prompt it's pretty good in setting them apart as a comment.

[fallen]

johndramey - thanks! We are working on the different font color (blue probably) and the "Skip Intro" would place you at the chest with all your gear equipped. You still have to fight your way out of RH.

That chest is also where KickStarter Mighty Starter Items will be distributed, on top of the default starting gear. When we get there, we will be giving both, so that if you want to play it the hard way, you can.

[johndramey]

Oh yes! I am very interested in those mighty items, it'll be cool seeing how they work.

Can I make a small suggestion about the intro? As it stands now the party conveniently finds gear that was all left in a box for them, magically it matches exactly what they need. Why not change the dialogue a bit and have all that gear be their confiscated equipment? It would make a lot more sense for them to put the confiscated gear near the cell block because, normally, prisoners could be released after serving their time and get all of their equipment back.

[fallen]

johndramey - thanks, that small tweak makes it more believable by far. Even if it means the guards are not too smart

[johndramey]

Nov 26, 2013 0:20:57 GMT -5 fallen said:

johndramey - thanks, that small tweak makes it more believable by far. Even if it means the guards are not too smart

Yeah, still not the brightest guards in the world, but at least this way there is a good reason for all of the equipment to be sitting around. You could even have the thief mention something about how the guards made a rookie mistake

[hosh]

I've been busy the past couple weeks, so I can give some perspective on this. Thanksgiving weekend is coming up so I'll give this a shot and give some feedback.

[johndramey]

I sympathize hosh, just finished moving, renewing my work visa, setting up my aquariums, and organizing my new place. Finally got a chance to sit down with P3 and all I can tell you is it's totally worth it. Try to find some time to boot it up for 30 minutes, you'll realize a couple hours are gone before too long

[fallen]

We now have all the instructional text in gold for the next update. Also fixed it all to be 100% first person, there was some inconsistency before.