Improving the tutorial

[IcyMoon]

I am new to stealth game so I started the Tutorial Mission to learn the controls of the game but I found it helpful but not at the same time. I like that there are separated rooms for each action to be practiced in.

However, the instructions given were the naming of the action, and since there are so many controls, I have a tough time trying to find the button for that exact action. For first time player or any fresh player to the game, I feel like it would be better to mention the default key for that action in the instruction note.

Edited June 24, 2020 by IcyMoon

[chakkman]

The problem is that people customize their key bindings. I'm not sure if the readables can account for that, and can be dynamically changed. I would guess that they cannot. 

Maybe some screen overlay instructions would be the better option. Even though I'm not sure if it's worth it. It isn't much of a hassle to switch to the menu and check the key bindings to see which keys is binded to the action you want to perform. There's really not so many key bindings in total.

Edited June 24, 2020 by chakkman

[Araneidae]

I suspect that if you're customising key bindings you already don't care about the tutorial telling which key to press.  Given that the tutorial claims to be a Tutorial, you have to assume that the user wants to have their hand held to begin with.  I sympathise with IcyMoon, the tutorial should be for her, not for us experienced users.

[stgatilov]

I like the idea, but I'm afraid it is not possible to get the key from settings into the map right now.

There is method idCommon::KeysFromBinding right now.
I think it is possible to add a bit of code which would allow referencing the in a map.
And I think there is already some way for a mapper to show text on screen.

[HMart]

stgatilov, unless you guys modified the input system has well, in normal idtech 4 there's also the ability to print (list) key bindings on the console, so obviously they can be made into a simple string. If this code gets updated has keybindings get changed ingame, I don't know but I assume it does. 

Here is the relevant code from KeyInput.cpp

void Key_ListBinds_f( const idCmdArgs &args ) {
	int		i;

	for ( i = 0; i < MAX_KEYS; i++ ) {
		if ( keys[i].binding.Length() ) {
			common->Printf( "%s \"%s\"\n", idKeyInput::KeyNumToString( i, false ), keys[i].binding.c_str() );
		}
	}
}

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by HMart

[chakkman]

2 hours ago, Araneidae said:

I suspect that if you're customising key bindings you already don't care about the tutorial telling which key to press.  Given that the tutorial claims to be a Tutorial, you have to assume that the user wants to have their hand held to begin with.  I sympathise with IcyMoon, the tutorial should be for her, not for us experienced users.

Well... I'm sure some new players will change the key bindings first thing they do in the game, and, if the readables in the training mission would show the default keybindings then, then it would not be helpful at all.

You always can go to the menus and check the key binding. It's really not that hard. I get why you'd want to have the key bindings shown on the screen, but, IMO, the issue is not so severe that it would justify overhauling the training mission for it. Just my opinion.

Edited June 24, 2020 by chakkman

[wesp5]

I could easily add at least the default keys to be displayed in the Unofficial Patch if this will not go into the core game. Only one text file needs to be edited!

P.S.: So here is my first version of the training_mission string file with included default keys mentioned and connected formation and other text issues fixed. IcyMoon, please extract the attached archive into your The Dark Mod/fms folder and report back if I missed some formation issues!

 

training_mission.rar

Edited June 24, 2020 by wesp5

[IcyMoon]

16 hours ago, chakkman said:

Well... I'm sure some new players will change the key bindings first thing they do in the game, and, if the readables in the training mission would show the default keybindings then, then it would not be helpful at all.

You always can go to the menus and check the key binding. It's really not that hard. I get why you'd want to have the key bindings shown on the screen, but, IMO, the issue is not so severe that it would justify overhauling the training mission for it. Just my opinion.

Normally new players will view the controls but will not change them because we do not know how the game works and how convenient are the buttons prepared for us yet. Having new players to memorize the long list of controls before starting the game while still going back and forth to find the button controls kind of break the immersive experience. I know it is not a big deal, I am just suggesting the idea too. 

 

13 hours ago, wesp5 said:

I could easily add at least the default keys to be displayed in the Unofficial Patch if this will not go into the core game. Only one text file needs to be edited!

P.S.: So here is my first version of the training_mission string file with included default keys mentioned and connected formation and other text issues fixed. IcyMoon, please extract the attached archive into your The Dark Mod/fms folder and report back if I missed some formation issues!

 

training_mission.rar 18.8 kB · 0 downloads

Yes, it worked well! Definitely helped with my learning to the game faster, thank you so much.

[chakkman]

3 hours ago, IcyMoon said:

Normally new players will view the controls but will not change them because we do not know how the game works and how convenient are the buttons prepared for us yet. Having new players to memorize the long list of controls before starting the game while still going back and forth to find the button controls kind of break the immersive experience. I know it is not a big deal, I am just suggesting the idea too. 

Yeah, fair enough. The thing is just that the control scheme of TDM is pretty basic, both for shooter players and people who come from the original Thief games (it's almost identical to those).

But, if wesp5's solution works for you, all the better of course.

[wesp5]

I edited some more text to avoid formatting issues. I hope I got them all now! Maybe someone from the team could take a look if it's worth to put into the core game?

training_mission.rar

Edited June 25, 2020 by wesp5