Giving my friends a good first impression

[KeyBlue]

None of my IRL friends are playing SCFA or have even touched it.
And since i'm not the greatest at properly hyping a game I haven't been able to convince them so far to get it.
(Not that I have really tried very hard before. So the situation is that they just don't know what it is really)
So i'm planning on just buying some keys in a sale and distributing them between my friends.
Followed by having us all play some games together so they can get the feel of the game.


Now here comes my question: What would be the best/easiest way to give them the best possible experience / first impression?

We'll probably all play online (but i could try to organize some LAN games first if that is considered superior).
I assume i don't let them play with other people, since they have 0 experience and would just get murdered by random people.
But should i myself also not play and simply be an observer? If I do play, how should I ideally behave?
I'm thinking i could just fool around while avoiding any dominant behaviour. Yes/no?

What maps should we play? Just go with the most popular ones (that are not gap/thermo etc), like canis, wonder, etc?
Or should i start with coop games?
What mods should we use? Probably no sim mods at all?
What UI mods should i recommend? Only simple mods, like SSB and Notify? (UI party and eco mod would require too much configuration and could be too intrusive at first)

Which game aspects should I properly explain?
And how would i ideally explain them? Give them a list with top 10 things you need to know?
Make a video showing the top 10 things?
Or should I just make a real effort and make a basic new player tutorial map that guides them through these top 10 things you need to know.
(If I did this, should i have them play it beforehand or just make it coop so they can play it together just before the games?)


As you may have noticed I have no real clue how to properly handle this.
I only started playing after watching 50+ hours of Gyle casts so I roughly knew what was up before even touching the game.
I doubt I can convince my friends to do the same.
So some suggestion/experience sharing for a decent alternative would be great.

[PhilipJFry]

Greatly depends on what your friends prefer but in my experience the (coop) campaign is kinda nice to show people how to make units, how to get a feeling for the controls/eco and thus is a good place to start.

[lextoc]

First time I played Supreme Commander was on Steam. Just played against the AI. I quit after a week or two. Then ran into a video of ZaphodX (or Gyle, can't remember), and I checked out the FAF community. Played a couple of teamgames and laddered a little bit, got addicted . Some players like playing turtle maps, some like intensive fights, personal preference really ...

[biass]

Don't just toss them into a 4v4 and expect to roll with it, play something that requires not a lot of game knowledge, like survival or something

[EDIT]:learn by doing, people are not going to just sit down and expect to watch/read all this theory to play a game where they could just play something else, people are busy

[lextoc]

I still remember my first game ... I was so confused with the air units, that they were just like ... Flying around there. Hadn't seen that game mechanic in any other game, still didn't see it in any other game now that I think about it?

[partymarty81]

I have the same thing with a RL friend, i tried getting him to play 1v1 co op with me vs easy AI however it was too much for him to take in all at once....

We just did it that he played and I told him what to do etc - get them playing the campaign together and the campaign tutorials to give them a flavour, then perhaps playing each other as they will be starting at same level

try to get them hooked watching gyle casts and others - Heaven is uploading daily (entertainment stuff and tutorial) and plenty of others.... once hooked they will want to watch all the BO tutorials to get better at it

[speed2]

Pfff, what kind of question is this keyblue? Campaign...

[Plasma_Wolf]

The coop campaign will tear your friends apart in a second, eat them and spit out a resulting mulch of wasted time.

The coop is standard set at "hard" and I had problems trying to make it through the first 10-20 minutes. Start with XvX against AI. Then you can cover for your friends while they build the big experimentals and then steamroll over the AI. It'll help them with the basics of eco and units.

[lextoc]

Yes, FAF's coop is definitely not recommended for complete newbies. It's really difficult (especially the first couple of minutes).

[speed2]

If only there would be an option to change the difficulty and if only keyblue knew it very well as one of the coop devs