Welcome new players... not really

[edmundopt]

I have been experiencing myself a new player account, and here is the hard truth about FAF :

maps with all welcome tags :
thermo
isis / green isis / whatever isis
12 the pass
gap of rohan
setons(when giebmasse hosts it)
dual gap
zombi war
voodoo xxx version 16341641
survival of some sort with a zilion mods


players that get here have no interest about tutorials whatsoever, they just get in the game and start some randomness, they also don't know any chat commands, like none
there's also a very strong russian playerbase whos english is not that great, special note to Zlo :

Spoiler: show

a youtube playlist with some basic build orders(forget about reclaim) on team games featuring Twin rivers, BloodThrone, plateu small, Massif, theta passage 3v3

alot more smurfing then expected, like alot more and you need some knowledge to see it, so new people won't figure that out, they also don't know what to do about it.

countless insults to new people, and its like really harsh, worst part is, sometimes is not even their fault

extremly bad map design, most maps have too much reclaim for a person that does not know the concept to get even with someone who does

ranking system : you can play only 1 map and get 2000 rating, now how is this possible, FAF was born in 2011(I think) and this still was not addressed ? make another rating system that adds stars or another number next to rating, rate maps with stars, problem fixed, 2000 rating 1 start = lousy player

what is the point of all this typing , we won't get competitive players if the path for a new player does not change, I think this is an urgent subject

rant is over, back to playing with new people trying to make them make tanks and not t2 mex

[PsychoBoB]

What about something like "New players welcome training games"? Whoever with a bit experience in FAF can host them to help new players a bit to get a foot on the ground. Maybe the title should be always the same.

[surtsan]

This issue is even more evil because either you host this kind of map or you wait X minutes to fill a game (switch from a unusual map when you waited for 20 minutes to thermo and your lobby will fill within 2 minutes, that's really bad).

[Seriph]

All excellent suggestions. However a person just starting has no interest in looking for tutorials and training games. He does not even know about its existence.

My personal experience was thus. Install FAF. I don't remember where i learned about FAF. Saw the pop-up that a ladder game was available. I clicked play. Got my ass handed to me by a million mantis before i even left my base. After this i started doing a little research and joined some all welcome games and learned from my fellow players what they did and watched some videos from Youtube.

What i did not know when i first started:
What the replay vault was and how it could help.
Knew about the forum.
Knew about the tutorials available on youtube (I did find Gyle and his videos taught me a lot)
Knew about the trainer program.

As a new player I was not interested in all that stuff I just wanted to play. And there lies the problem. Oldbies expect people to at least know how to play. To know at least the basics about build queues and the different units. Newbies just want to play and play like they were taught in the single player.

[surtsan]

Omg it gave me an idea about what you said ! If they are not aware, it would be really nice to have a 2-3min (not more they want to play not watch videos, maybe say in the beginning do'nt close the video it lasts only a few minutes and will help you a lot or something) video which explains all the important stuff :
- how to play
- what to join (because obviously when they start they shouldn't host so don't bother explaining hosting ? )
- where you can learn stuff
- maybe talk about maps (avoid playing thermo & co... could be a way to reduce the number of these maps, but in the other end maybe it is not a good idea since they will have to wait too much + may be too difficult to play other maps for the first time...)
- maybe talk about coop (no clue if it is good or no, never did it)

And it could be integrated onto the client (first launch ever of it or first connection to the client >> show the video)

That would be amazing, I think

[tatsu]

That would be amazing, I think

something along these lines?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhrz0rZ ... e=youtu.be

I think @medicraze can help?

[surtsan]

Yeah, but I didn't want to bother @medicraze if he does a video but we don't implement this thing on the client (I don't know how this kind of stuff work). Or I guess whatever it is fine too.



Yeah this kind of video are great, but for someone who just launched the client and want to play, 7min is way too long (if I were in their shoes,I wouldn't want to watch a 7 min... but a few minutes yeah sure, but it depends on people I guess)

[tatsu]

I think this is something the devs and mods will be fine with : for galactic war for example there's a video you have to see when you first sign in to the mod.

so it's not too crazy to imagine the same but for the first time you sign into the client.

make a lot of sense when you think about it.

PA and many other games do it.

[Franck83]

We should do a cool Capture The Flag mod. And promote this mod for new players.
Invulnerable base so new players can have more fun. And they would play at least during the timer.
At the end of the game, team won or lost, but no player that died during the game.

And maybe some handicap system.

Or maybe a comeback system mod (a death timer) for dead players.

[IceDreamer]

Devs are aware of the rather lacklustre map selection by players in general, and a plan is beginning to roll to try and address it. The hope is to introduce a way to gently guide players towards trying a wider variety of maps.