Dev Blog : May 30th 2016

[Bench]

We're finally back with another Dev Blog! What an exciting few months we've had. Let's catch up on what's happened, what's coming in the future, and gather your input on a couple things. We'll start things off by turning back the clocks and looking at what has happened since our last Dev Blog in February.

Fleets & Carriers

March saw the release of Fleets and Carriers, introducing a number of cool new features like being able to give basic commands to a fleet, recall them to the flagship, as well as the additional of a couple new rail blocks enabling players to design their own docking mechanisms. If you want to catch up on what came in that update then click here.

Massive Bug Fix Period

April gave us a number of rounds of bug fixing as we addressed a number of lingering issues and bugs that plagued the game. A number of game enhancements were addressed as well, for example the ability for the build helper to remember the previous settings. There have been so many things addressed, for the lists check here (Round 1, Round 2, Round 3).

Fleet Build Contest

Near the end of April we announced a Fleet Build contest to the community and the response has been amazing, not just in that we've received 71 fleet submissions but even the quality of them. There's still time to submit as the contest will close June 21st, 1:00AM UTC so click here to view the announcement post to find out all the details.

New Council Term 3

May wrapped up our 2nd council term as elections were held for the 3rd Council term. Results for Term 3 were announced a day ago. We see the return of some familiar faces, as well as a new face on the council. We also reduced the number of councilors this time to see if less works more efficiently; time will tell.

Main Menu

The latest major feature to the game is the introduction of a main menu, something that we've needed for quite a while and so it's exciting to finally have it in. While simple on the surface, the main menu introduces a number of things to the game that we haven't had previously, like the ability to edit a lot of the settings and options right here in the game. Other features include the ability to change servers or from an online to local universe without closing the game. Find out all about this update here.

What's coming up

That brings us to where we are now, with a number of things under development. Behind the scenes an incredible amount of planning has happened, mapping out the rest of the game through to Beta which is really exciting. Looking at the more immediate development plans we will be looking at bringing more objects into the game over time as we position ourselves to best do that. We're also going to be starting on introducing more trading aspects to the game, which will include starting to introduce some of the new Trading Guild ships into the game.

Beyond that, updates will include setting up some foundations, ready for new features being added down the track, as well as some improvements to existing parts of the game.

One of those foundations is the introduction of videos in-game, allowing us to create stylized contextual tutorial videos to assist with the learning curve of the game. This is a major addition as it introduces the ability for us to ensure that we provide adequate tutorials for new features as they're added in with each major feature release.

Your input

This is where you come in. Now that we have the ability to provide specialized contextual tutorials for in-game content/features/mechanics we want your suggestions on what we should make tutorials for and how.

For example, we could do videos on every single weapons system, or we could do one video on "weapons systems" as a whole. It's all dependent on your experience with the learning curve of the game, so let us know by replying to this news post with your suggestions on video tutorials you would have either found useful when starting out, or would find useful now. This will give us a great basis to be able to address the issues surrounding the learning curve of the game, and position us to easily continue adding tutorials and support in-game in a similar method when we add new features in.


That's it for another Dev Blog. We're excited for all that's around the corner for StarMade and we hope you are too.

- The Schine Team

 

[alterintel]

Hah, I'm first

I'm not exactly sure, of the context of the video's or how they will be displayed in the game. If the're will be a video link to each block of the game, or if there will be a tutorial section on the Top Row Menu?

(I'm not very good at communicating with users so my ideas are probably not the best)
Why not do all of the above? Have a really broad tutorial, and through out the tutorial series have various links or popups that give players the option to get more specific tutorial videos.

It could break down into a kind of video tree starting really broad and then being able to focus down on the aspects of the game that the user needs more help with.

So for example: Broad "How to build a ship" video. while watching the video the user will come across the part that talks about weapons. S/He clicks on the link for a more detailed weapon video. which starts talking about power usage, DPS, and Secondary/Terterariy Effects. Then the user might click on a link breaking down the different different types of primary weapons, or click on a link that talks about what types of effects you could put on your weapon systems.

There should also be a way that users can click on a specific detailed video without having to start on the broad video again.

Videos that helped me:
Well the videos that talk about the various systems that are in the game are nice. But the videos that I found most help full were the examples. IE how to build a 5x5 reactor. How to use area triggers. How to link wireless blocks. Also testing videos IE. Armor penetration videos for various weapons systems.

Thanks for the new Dev. Blog. Much appreciated

 

[Nalem]

The video's will be displayed like this (screen by Andy in pre release)

 

[Kingofanime]

Beginner Video Idea....

Making your first factory - Teaches how to craft factories and refine resources from the inventory menus.

I think this was the first hurdle I had when I started. This video should take place on a planet, like you're stranded there and don't own a single block, it shows you what to do.

 

[Lecic]

For example, we could do videos on every single weapons system, or we could do one video on "weapons systems" as a whole. It's all dependent on your experience with the learning curve of the game, so let us know by replying to this news post with your suggestions on video tutorials you would have either found useful when starting out, or would find useful now. This will give us a great basis to be able to address the issues surrounding the learning curve of the game, and position us to easily continue adding tutorials and support in-game in a similar method when we add new features in.

I would say to have some basic videos as well as more indepth videos.

For weapons, a video going over the basics of the master/slave/effect system and how DPS and power consumption work would be the basic. Then, there'd be videos going over each primary weapon type, and a (short) video for each effect in offensive mode for the advanced stuff.

For defenses, in the basic video, you'd talk about how shields protect the entire ship, protect turrets to a point, and recharge, how armor protects specific locations and doesn't recharge, and how point defense shoots down missiles. Then, in the advanced videos, you'd cover how shield work and how they combine with ion, how armor tiers, effective HP, armor HP, and punch/pierce combine with it, and what kinds of weapons PD work best with. You'd also want to have information about the defensive abilities of all the effects as well.

I could go on about other things, but I think you get the idea. Basic, general videos on a topic, followed by advanced, specific videos for people who want to learn more and build better.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

i would say a video on how to save a blueprint and upload it to starmade dock would be great. Also reminders to check out the official starmade wiki.

 

[OmegaGame]

I see this game as requiring an absolute hand holding session at first to keep the hordes of ADHD masses interest peaked long enough to attain the basics right out the gate.

Perhaps a basic video tutorial will pop up immediately upon starting up the game for the first time that would show some of the best ships to have ever been built in SM battling it out for a few moments in a JJ abrams style action scene with lots of lens flares and explosions to oohhh and ahh the viewer. Then go to a very basic ship design immediately that fairly quickly demonstrates a ship being built right in front of their own eyes while simply yet quickly explaining each step.

As said, keep it simple at first. Then have a tutorial tree for the more advanced steps that is easily accessible and clearly labeled. I know this sounds cynical. But i have tried getting no less then a hundred individuals turned onto this game. Only to realize that we are in the age of instant gratification where everyone expects insta JJ abrams style action, lens flares and explosions.

At best 10% stuck around long enough to build a working ship. While even less ever got to the point of building anything more advanced then that. I suppose that could be why the servers seem to be filled with mostly peace loving hippy trekkies and Scifi buffs who are their to recreate their favorite ship from Warhammer or babylon 5..etc..etc who rarely leave their home base. Because it is those who stick around for the ship building.

 

[TheWurm]

The tutorials/wiki articles I appreciated the most were for power reactor lines and waffled salvage, since those were the least intuitive for me. And make it clear in the salvage tutorial that there is a maximum effectiveness per line, assuming that stays true.

It might be good to look at the tooltips for blocks in conjunction to this. Specifically, if you could mouse over a computer in the weapons menu and get a tooltip for what it's doing in it's current position( I.e. ' missile slave: spreads shot of master system, giving more projectiles, but less damage per projectile. Can be used as master.') might help out, especially if a tutorial/starter ship is provided.

If you did that, you could do a general weapon slaving tutorial and leave the specific combinations for discovery.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Perhaps some video tutorials with blueprints or templates to go along with the tutorial.
Sort of like a, "... and this is one I baked earlier... now add your personal touch here."

 

[Lukwan]

I found the tutorial about master-slave linking to be important early on.

I suggest a focus on avoiding aggravation for new players:
-Very brief how-to make a ship & go mining for Mats.
-Core game concepts. armor/systems/ shields.
-Navigation filters and travel tips.
-Get players familiar with the undeathinator and Home-base protection. (IE: faction-up...claiming a base...docking)
-Push the idea of blueprinting to avoid loosing new designs.

Players will make mistakes and learn as they go but at least with the basics covered the lessons won't be frustrating.

 

[Criss]

We are thinking of making very infographic short videos. Something that displays the blocks, gives descriptions, and of course a clip or two of them in use in the game. These have to be basically as small as possible, as right now the only practical way of having them there at all is to download them with the game.

 

[Valck]

I don't know if I like the idea of video tutorials in game - they may be helpful getting to first know StarMade, but I think most people go through them quickly and after that, the videos are mostly ballast.

I agree some kind of reference data within the game could be helpful, only I think video content quickly gets old and outdated.
Maybe it would be more helpful to have some kind of an inline encyclopedia; my guess is it could convey much more in-depth information in the same or less amount of data required for the videos.
An encyclopedia could also integrate with all kinds of menus in game, like direct links to block entries from the player or shop inventories, or via some kind of "explain this button" for build mode etc.; I think it would be more difficult to do that with videos, or at least not as flexible.

 

[Tomssuli]

Maybe there could be also a dividation in tutorials for different paths you might want to take in the game... As OmegaGame pointed out (not in these terms exactly), many people don't have the attention span to start learning how to design a ship. Because of that, there should be simple ingame way to get basic ship model blueprints like 'miner', 'fighter', 'bomber', 'scout' with tiny, small, medium, large variants...

And a "straight to action" -tutorial series, telling how to get into the game without so much touching the build mode (and maybe even the factories). There is game enough for some people in buying blueprints, constructing ships from them, looting resources and money to get bigger and bigger ships.

Maybe later they want to learn to modify and build their own ships but for many people - action comes first.

 

[Jananton]

Asking what are the best subjects for beginner video tutorials is a little like the chicken and egg question. People who respond here for the most already have experience with the game and what you would really like to know is learning how first time players at this moment get to grips, or not, with the current game mechanics when they start playing the game.

Although it's not obvious from the initial blog article I presume the tutorial play arena will still be in place as well and I feel that should be used to let the new user choose those video tutorials on beginners subjects that remain unclear after trying to complete, or failing, the 'tests' there. If the video tutorial starts automatic or not on failure is a design choice and those, I suppose, could be build in, however, all more in depth video tutorials related should be streamed in on request by the user. I just drop the quote "Do you want to know more?" in here.

Typical subjects, from memory when I started playing and a lot that's available now wasn't in place yet, were,
- setting up power lines
- setting up master - slave weapon / salvage arrays and how to unlink them in the weapon menu (G) key
- related to the above the in game principle of linking certain blocks with (C) and (V) keys

Not really a beginners subject, but the use of faction blocks and permissions would be a nice candidate too. As a mainly single player person I've been caught out a few times not being able to enter my own ships after ending a session and coming back later. :D

Finally, as a thought on getting feedback from real first time users, what about a feedback button in the video screen dialog so beginners can instant comment if they still don't understand what's explained or if it doesn't answer what they really expected to learn?

Greets,

Jan

 

[alterintel]

I don't know if I like the idea of video tutorials in game - they may be helpful getting to first know StarMade, but I think most people go through them quickly and after that, the videos are mostly ballast.

I agree some kind of reference data within the game could be helpful, only I think video content quickly gets old and outdated.
Maybe it would be more helpful to have some kind of an inline encyclopedia; my guess is it could convey much more in-depth information in the same or less amount of data required for the videos.
An encyclopedia could also integrate with all kinds of menus in game, like direct links to block entries from the player or shop inventories, or via some kind of "explain this button" for build mode etc.; I think it would be more difficult to do that with videos, or at least not as flexible.

Agreed,
It's a shame to download all the extra data for videos, when all the graphics for generating the video is already in the game. Perhaps it would be best to have some kind of scripted scene that can play out in the game itself. Once NPC and stuff get scripted it may be easy to use some of that code to generate a "How To / Informational" sequences that can be viewed in game.

 

[Drakkart]

i think you should focus more on making the game accessible and even out the inconsitencies in useage and also not putting stuff away in the 8th tab on the 3rd submenu... like some faction things you really need to search deep. also some default values for newly setup worlds are a catastrophe just giving the users ??? why the game would be so dump not recognizing it is a damn configuration thing. Recall all these little complaint you gain through user feedback? That's the stuff i am talking about make it solid bring it to final stages and then i am sure there will be tutorials about stuff.

 

[Master_Artificer]

Make the basic videos as short and basicbas possible, if someone has to sit through 5 minutes of not playing the game, they might not start actually playing.

Like, a streamer doing first impressions of starmade might just say "well whatever let's just figure it out as we go!" Instead of watching the videos and loosing interest with his audiance.
[DOUBLEPOST=1464613809,1464613225][/DOUBLEPOST]Also each terminal of the spawn station should be capable of playing one of the tutorial videos in game (and which saves it to a menu for you to play it any time again). Maybe it's a projector/TV block, or maybe it's an NPC with a dialog option.

Server owners would then be able to add said npc's/blocks to their own spawn stations to introduce players to their server in their own ways.
Let's hold off on factions doing that for now.

 

[Lancake]

i think you should focus more on making the game accessible and even out the inconsitencies in useage and also not putting stuff away in the 8th tab on the 3rd submenu... like some faction things you really need to search deep. also some default values for newly setup worlds are a catastrophe just giving the users ??? why the game would be so dump not recognizing it is a damn configuration thing. Recall all these little complaint you gain through user feedback? That's the stuff i am talking about make it solid bring it to final stages and then i am sure there will be tutorials about stuff.

The entire main menu was made to make it more accessible for new players. We're still improving on it since it's missing a few elements we think are necessary. You want us to improve user experience while we're constantly trying to do that, it just takes months and months of constant little improvements to get a complete user friendly package. Main menu is pretty good right now except for a few things (most of them were already addressed in dev builds) but the in-game one is rather disappointing in comparison.

The tutorial videos are an easy way to teach new players about pretty much anything in Starmade. Most importantly, schema doesn't have to maintain it constantly. Our current tutorial station is outdated and it often requires code patches to keep it working properly.
Videos could be made by anyone and with subtitles, we can have it work properly for all supported languages.

Only downside is that it increases Starmade's initial download size. Current dev build has 265MB of videos. We'll be able to reduce that though.
I don't think it's that bad considering how many games this day are 30-40GB big. Starmade might reach 1GB with most tutorial videos in there which is still pretty good.

 

[Lecic]

Could it be a possibility to host the videos somewhere else (say, youtube) but have an option to download the videos with your game if you want to have them available offline?

 

[nightrune]

The entire main menu was made to make it more accessible for new players. We're still improving on it since it's missing a few elements we think are necessary. You want us to improve user experience while we're constantly trying to do that, it just takes months and months of constant little improvements to get a complete user friendly package. Main menu is pretty good right now except for a few things (most of them were already addressed in dev builds) but the in-game one is rather disappointing in comparison.

The tutorial videos are an easy way to teach new players about pretty much anything in Starmade. Most importantly, schema doesn't have to maintain it constantly. Our current tutorial station is outdated and it often requires code patches to keep it working properly.
Videos could be made by anyone and with subtitles, we can have it work properly for all supported languages.

Only downside is that it increases Starmade's initial download size. Current dev build has 265MB of videos. We'll be able to reduce that though.
I don't think it's that bad considering how many games this day are 30-40GB big. Starmade might reach 1GB with most tutorial videos in there which is still pretty good.

It would be ideal if you could select to have no videos for at least server installs. That saves bandwidth and CPU on your end as well.