Dev Blog : May 30th 2016

[Valck]

Our current tutorial station is outdated and it often requires code patches to keep it working properly.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.

Yes, videos could be made by anyone, just as code could be written by anyone. If you don't care about quality and consistency, that is.

Our current tutorial station is outdated and it often requires code patches to keep it Only downside is that it increases Starmade's initial download size.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.

So you've already tripled the download size, and are considering even more, just for the sake of the initial hump? What about the additional content that's going to go in, like the fleets from the current and likely other, future contests? Of course that would be dwarfed by the videos, but it's still worth keeping that in mind, too.
I mean, it's your game, and your direction, but forgive me if I'm not enthusiastic over this particular feature. I think it's a noble effort that's not worth it in the end. It's simple enough to find decent tutorials on Youtube; another competition could further increase what's on offer, plus it would probably have a better advertising effect at the same time. Have a link to an official video webpage from the main menu, or an official Youtube channel if you must.

At the very least, as has been suggested, make them a separate package to download for those who really want them. Still I'll shed a tear over the wasted effort.

 

[Lancake]

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.

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?

I would like to see an option to disable it yes. However, if given a prompt, most users will most likely not install tutorial videos because they don't think it's needed. When they realize they do need them, they might just not play anymore instead of having to start the launcher again and selecting an option to also download those tutorial videos. This will give you a second download you have to wait for and most likely make an impatient player quit entirely.

The option to disable downloading tutorial videos would be nice, but downloading tutorial videos needs to enabled on default and that setting has to be somewhere in the options menu of the launcher so not every player immediately disables it.

 

[Madman198237]

My thought was to have a completely in-game tutorial system.

As in, the first time a user looks at a block or enters a ship core, a video pops up on the side of the screen (After an intro video that is short and mentions how to access help) that describes the things that can be done with that block.

The first time they look at the weapons menu, ship menu, faction menu, etc., all come with little videos (Preferably videos that can be enlarged with a click for easy viewing) that explain the basics.....and then have a button/link/archaic lever to push/click/pull to reveal a longer, larger, in-depth video that covers all the relevant information.


The should keep the immersion going, while not making players feel abandoned 2 minutes into the game.

 

[Lancake]

Yes, videos could be made by anyone, just as code could be written by anyone. If you don't care about quality and consistency, that is.

It's simple enough to find decent tutorials on Youtube; another competition could further increase what's on offer, plus it would probably have a better advertising effect at the same time. Have a link to an official video webpage from the main menu, or an official Youtube channel if you must.

The official tutorials would not be made by anyone, they would be made by schine members. But since it's easy enough to make your own videos, people that provide mods could also provide their own small tutorial video or infographic.
Schema can focus on other features while someone else is making videos at the same time. Quality would go up even since Schema excels at coding, not at writing tutorials. As for the final quality assurance check, we have testers to go through them.

It's simple enough to find tutorials on youtube, true, but not everyone has a stable internet connection 24/7.
It also requires you to alt tab out of your game. A single download at a specified time would help a lot for those users.
They would have all the information they need in-game provided they're willing to download about 300MB more. With eventually translated subtitles for all supported languages.

 

[PLIX]

a basic logic and rail tutorial

 

[Criss]

We already know which tutorials we will need. We are asking how it be presented. Obviously we will have one on rails, logic or weapons systems. How do you think we should explain it. A video for every single system. A video covering all 4 weapons instead of 4 videos covering one weapon?

That is what we are asking. We could probably do both. And keep in mind video tutorials are not the only way we can help you, but the other plans are not fleshed out yet. This is the first step.

 

[Markonius]

We already know which tutorials we will need. We are asking how it be presented. Obviously we will have one on rails, logic or weapons systems. How do you think we should explain it. A video for every single system. A video covering all 4 weapons instead of 4 videos covering one weapon?

That is what we are asking. We could probably do both. And keep in mind video tutorials are not the only way we can help you, but the other plans are not fleshed out yet. This is the first step.

I would think that short videos would be best, so short videos straight to the point. I think there should be small videos for all aspects of the game with say 3 for making money 'short term' 'long term' 'other ways' etc. There could be one big video for each 'category' and under each category many videos.
So for example categories being:
Rail
Logic
Factions
Stations
Ships
Money
Roleplay

And then each having sub-videos.

 

[kiraen]

30seconde to 2 minutes, max.

When you are starting out in the game, you want to get into the game and play. You do not want to have to sit through ten minutes of how to play the game. Keep it short and sweet. Indepth learning should happen through other sources (experience, youtube, other players)

 

[Markonius]

I think 5min max is suitable, especially if you want to make a commitment to the game. If you think you know what you need to know, just shut video and open another.

 

[Broomsage]

I would recommend having longer tutorial videos, with links to certain times in the videos so that each step in the tutorial can be easily skipped to after the video has been watched.
This way we have the benefit of shorter videos in simplicity and the benefits of longer videos in the amount of information offered.
Long detailed tutorials with a good menu to skip to parts we want are the way to go.

I learned to play starmade with the old ingame tutorial. It was painfully slow but it taught me everything I needed to know by just walking me through the gameplay itself. If people needed hand holding, that was the way to do it. Just make sure we can skip some parts of it if you plan on doing something similar.

 

[terra mining corp.]

having a quick link you can access in game when you run into trouble would be nice for gameplay options,have them broken down into major sections that are brief and branch into more indepth tutorials if selected. Also a tutorial for more advanced options on the main menu would be nice ie: importing/exporting blueprints and worlds,where to change config options and limitations on this.But everything has been a step in the right direction making the game more enjoyable.

 

[Nickizzy]

Could it be a possibility to host the videos somewhere else

Say, a tutorial video page on the web? Have a link in the tooltip to a webpage(on the wiki or SMD). You don't need to have all this stuff ingame, just put them in the wiki and give links to it(make them look good and stuff, of cource). No need to make the game more storage heavy, when you can just make the wiki a bit better.
[DOUBLEPOST=1464706164,1464705797][/DOUBLEPOST]

not everyone has a stable internet connection 24/7

Isn't that partly their problem? It's not like that should be any major part of your client base. This is a PC game, not a mobile app or something that people take everywhere. If they accutually take their laptop on a plane or something and decide to play starmade, they probably are already pretty dedicated to the game. Besides, ususally they might download the game and then start it up while still online.

 

[Criss]

If we can condense the videos down enough, we are willing to ship them with the game, or make them an option. Lancake did point out that this would likely be set as a default unless opted out of.

 

[kiraen]

If you want to give me a gig of video tutorials, I'm good with that. 5000 different videos, I'm good with that. One for every block, one for every system, one for every concept. I'm good with that.

But they need to be short. The more time you spend watching these videos, the less time you actually spend playing the game and having fun.

When I was first learning the rail system I looked up Bench's videos. But I did not need to watch every one of them. I watched 3 or 4, got what I needed and then went back to playing the game. Then when I needed more information for another project I again went back to Bench's videos, got what I needed and moved on.

I learned the game by playing the game. When I needed help I looked up specific information and then went back to figuring it out myself.

And for god's sake, please make the 'movement tutorial' optional and skippable. I'm pretty sure 99% of the human population knows how to use the WASD keys. Those that do not are still learning to tie their shoes.

 

[Ithirahad]

To be clear, we ARE moving back into content after the upcoming update that finishes up the launcher, right?
(Bench, Criss, @whoever might be listening)

The last five updates have been excellent, but in the current state of the game, the lack of features and things to keep people engaged is quickly becoming a drain.

The only thing that I could maybe justify that isn't a content update, is wireless logic getting fixed. Even if just that one bug takes up an entire release cycle.

 

[DukeofRealms]

5000 different videos, I'm good with that. One for every block

Nah, I'm good.

 

[Dellexe]

To make videos use up less space, you could make them be based as a scripted series of events/pop ups in game rather than actual videos.
Similar to in-game cutscenes in other games, to avoid having massive files solely for video sequences.

 

[schema]

For servers: it may be possible possible to use a branch to exclude videos from downloading via launcher.

In any case you would only download them once anyways. After that only changes would be downloaded, unless you are downloading full builds
[DOUBLEPOST=1464757780,1464757306][/DOUBLEPOST]Ithirahad after the next focus will be on features. I know that it's no fun being familiar with the game getting new tutorials, since you already know about all those things beforehand. However we are getting complaint after complaint about accessibility, which really hurts new players and in the long run us and the game, so we have to make sure to implement some polishing features like the main menu and tutorials to have a better first impression.
[DOUBLEPOST=1464757910][/DOUBLEPOST]Dellexe plan is to deploy with low quality (480p, while the current dev has 720p) and the ability to stream higher quality directly from youtube. But I'm not sure yet how well that is going to implement.

 

[Ithirahad]

Ithirahad after the next focus will be on features. I know that it's no fun being familiar with the game getting new tutorials, since you already know about all those things beforehand. However we are getting complaint after complaint about accessibility, which really hurts new players and in the long run us and the game, so we have to make sure to implement some polishing features like the main menu and tutorials to have a better first impression.

I understand; I'm actually quite happy to see these things in the game. These accessibility features were needed, and it's a good time to add them as many basic features are in a state that allows the tutorials to be put in. The main menu is great too; it should be a lot less confusing for people to navigate and it even makes things easier for experienced players like us. (Thanks a lot for that "continue last session" button, by the way. That's probably one of the best features added to the game.) I just mean that after five (necessary) updates without game features, ...well you know what I mean.

 

[DrTarDIS]

video for broad topics, but text for real info. Too many things need balancing to invest in video.