Tutorial and lack of any explanation

[Ally]

Is there no tutorial at all? I've picked it up coming from TAB, but honestly there's a lot of mechanics and absolutely no tutorial, that's insane.

I don't know the "point" as it where, what is the end goal? How does the skill tree work? What am I fighting? Why am I fighting? What's the difference between day and night, what rewards will I get for fighting at night? How do i place buildings....

There's literally zero guidance at all, going to be a rough entry point for new players and players who have never played TAB. At the minute, you don't even have a clear defined goal, is it endless? If so, what's the point? Is there an ending day?

I get the idea behind allowing the player to discover the fun, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, give us SOMETHING. Tell us what we're fighting or how to win....or even how buildings work?! The lack of clarity is insane.

[sunfire]

There's a small tutorial menu when you press escape. And the rest is pretty much tool-tips as you go. But i agree, the game could definitely take you more by the hand.

[Alkirin]

Units spawning in fog patches in your base is kind of an important thing they don't tell you about. Also warehouses doubling the output of quarries is a big one, though it's unclear what the range on it is.

[Mister Inadequate]

Originally posted by sunfire:

There's a small tutorial menu when you press escape. And the rest is pretty much tool-tips as you go. But i agree, the game could definitely take you more by the hand.

LOL, yea, it more or less just dumps in you into a shark filled swimming pool.

[Ally]

A main concern here is people will confuse a lack of clarity with difficulty.

Withholding information can be a fun way of making a player explore things, withholding everything makes the game not fun to play.

I'd expect a short tutorial of some description, a "failed" base defence, a "successful" short campaign that takes 15 minutes to explain how to build buildings, what a suggested build order is and why you shouldn't just spunk 500 stone into random upgrades.

The small window that pops up randomly is not good enough.

At the minute there's no way of knowing WHY you're playing or WHEN you're playing to. There's not even any flavour as to what or who you're fighting. Give us SOMETHING, TAB had cutscenes and lore, even without a campaign there was a clear direction and explanation of what I was fighting and why.

Feels very very unfinished in its current state, even for early access.

[Ally]

Originally posted by sunfire:

There's a small tutorial menu when you press escape. And the rest is pretty much tool-tips as you go. But i agree, the game could definitely take you more by the hand.

I'm not too keen on too much hand holding, but the game doesn't even tell you how or why to build any buildings?! It doesn't tell you what the objectives are. It doesn't tell you who or what you are fighting. It doesn't even help you start build a basic base of 1 house, 1 food generation, 1 wood generation. I genuinely didn't understand how to produce a quary, I was trying to place it on the graphical stylised stone that pops out of the ground rather than the actual stone that is available. There's mechanics that aren't the same as other games of this ilk or deviate away from the major ones.

You need to at least tell players what their objectives are.

[Ally]

Originally posted by Alkirin:

Units spawning in fog patches in your base is kind of an important thing they don't tell you about. Also warehouses doubling the output of quarries is a big one, though it's unclear what the range on it is.

There's a lot of things that need explanations before you use them and they're not explained at all. Tech trees, buildings that rely on other buildings, a light source mechanic....all not explained. Just off you go. Even a day night cycle that has a count down and "fighting at night gives you better rewards".

Just a mess of a game at the minute for new players who aren't willing to spend time just learning how the game works when a 15 minute tutorial would do it for you.

[scavenger]

What I wished is to see the enemy stats, have been curious on what some of them do but I can't click them D:. Didn't know what the spider fella did until he started lobbing bombs, or that the ghost like one has a quite a hard hitting melee. But yeah, took me a bit until one of my units became embolden that I learned "oh...so that's basically veteran compared to TAB"

[Desodius]

You dont need a tutorial, the game is pretty self explanatory. Its a colony sim with hard core survival elements, freaking out about this means you've obviously never played "They are billions" this is literally that game but without steam punk, a bit more seriousness and dread to it, a controllable hero and much better graphics and mechanics. Like I am totally confused, did you're hype go so strong that you just totally didn't know what you were getting yourself into? I'm really confused here. You only get rewards for surviving the horde night and you get 3 random cards to choose from. How do you place buildings, like, what? its an RTS? never played one before? there's a house button at the bottom of your UI. Did you not hover your mouse over every button and explore what each mechanic does? As for end goal you clearly didn't pay enough attention, did you just see something shiny and didn't bother to investigate what it is? Like, heeellllooooo? Your goal is to just hold out as long as you can, thats it. Its like halo fire fight, or gears swarm mode but without end until you are dead. They have done everything they can to make that pretty obvious, did you not read anything? I mean I'm just so freaking confused because you CLAIM you are coming from TAB but really I don't think you are, I have played TAB since they first game out and in the beginning they started out exactly like this game, there was no tutorial, their was no story, it was just you starting in survival just like this. I just. Idk man you're something else brother.

[Cryptic]

Hit escape and click tutorial.

[^7ja^1co]

If you want tutorial - play They are Billions

[Cryptic]

I think an optional tutorial in the main menu would be good. A predetermined map with some objectives and very low difficulty

[Ally]

Originally posted by Desodius:

You dont need a tutorial, the game is pretty self explanatory. Its a colony sim with hard core survival elements, freaking out about this means you've obviously never played "They are billions" this is literally that game but without steam punk, a bit more seriousness and dread to it, a controllable hero and much better graphics and mechanics. Like I am totally confused, did you're hype go so strong that you just totally didn't know what you were getting yourself into? I'm really confused here. You only get rewards for surviving the horde night and you get 3 random cards to choose from. How do you place buildings, like, what? its an RTS? never played one before? there's a house button at the bottom of your UI. Did you not hover your mouse over every button and explore what each mechanic does? As for end goal you clearly didn't pay enough attention, did you just see something shiny and didn't bother to investigate what it is? Like, heeellllooooo? Your goal is to just hold out as long as you can, thats it. Its like halo fire fight, or gears swarm mode but without end until you are dead. They have done everything they can to make that pretty obvious, did you not read anything? I mean I'm just so freaking confused because you CLAIM you are coming from TAB but really I don't think you are, I have played TAB since they first game out and in the beginning they started out exactly like this game, there was no tutorial, their was no story, it was just you starting in survival just like this. I just. Idk man you're something else brother.

Can you read?

You've posted a huge paragraph and not addressed anything I've actually said. Aside from the fact you can check my playtime and achievements on TAB by clicking on my profile, I'm not saying I don't understand what to do, I'm saying people who have never played an RTS before will know what to do.

Actually read what people right before spilling the meagre contents of your skull onto the page.

[Ally]

Originally posted by Corrosion:

I think an optional tutorial in the main menu would be good. A predetermined map with some objectives and very low difficulty

This is exactly what should happen.

[SidneyBoo]

Its kind of a trial and error game like they are billions, I think TAB had maybe 3 popup tooltips as a tutorial lol. Later when its fully released im assuming it will have a very simple starter level to help you ease into the game.

[Ally]

Originally posted by SidneyBoo:

Its kind of a trial and error game like they are billions, I think TAB had maybe 3 popup tooltips as a tutorial lol. Later when its fully released im assuming it will have a very simple starter level to help you ease into the game.

TAB had a full campaign where the earlier levels would introduce new aspects and certain things weren't even accessible. There's also a day counter explaining what day you are on and what do you need to play to on an objectives tab.