Tutorial needs some improvement

[Polecat]

Okay, let me start by saying I am genuinely enjoying the game. But the tutorial is... lacking. For someone who has zero background with the F-zero franchise, I need a lot of concepts explained to me that are not covered in the tutorial. I need to know how to do the attacks. I need to know what use the spin move is. I need to know what "hyper slide" is. Hell, I still need to know what the stats mean. Sure "top speed" and "combat" makes sense, but what the heck is "sliding"? And why can't I find a top notch handling, high accel, but crap top speed vehicle like I always use while learning a racing game? I have so many questions that the in-game tutorial doesn't cover. I have entire buttons on the controller I can see mapped for specific functions, but aren't addressed. I need to know what those do and are used for...

[YinYin]

That would overload the already crammed first tutorial mission.

All of these things aren't required to play and win the rest of the campaign at the moment and are planned to be taught later on.

Also check out the advanced stats. The compound general ones can't really give you a proper picture of a machine.

Feel free to specifically post all questions you have after looking through that.

[Polecat]

Originally posted by YinYin:

That would overload the already crammed first tutorial mission.

All of these things aren't required to play and win the rest of the campaign at the moment and are planned to be taught later on.

Also check out the advanced stats. The compound general ones can't really give you a proper picture of a machine.

Feel free to specifically post all questions you have after looking through that.

Honestly, if it would overload it, then there needs to be additional tutorials. I keep accidentally doing something that causes my vehicle to start veering wildly into a wall like it's suddenly turning more sharply, and I have no idea what it is. If it's something that isn't taught, it should be disabled then until it is.

As for advanced stats, I saw them, and could only make sense of part of them, and have zero idea how they feed into what I'm doing in game. An instruction page or something would help sort that out, admittedly, it doesn't need to be fancy, but it does need to be somewhere it can be referenced.

Honestly, I'd be happy with just something akin to an instruction manual, because I have no idea what I'm accidentally triggering when I go far left/right on the stick, then correct the other way and it keeps throwing me into a drift straight into the wall is. That's cost me more than one race (never been very delicate on the stick, even in driving games).

[YinYin]

Yeah that's what I said, there are more campaign missions planned that teach you the rest.

For now we do have a first community guide going over some techniques: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3305633918


Accidentaly veering wildly into a wall sounds very much like the exact same thing that used to happen to me in GX.

That is most likely the tight turn mechanic. Back when I played F-Zero I didn't know about it, only that it annoyingly kept happening against my will. (even the physical manual did not mention any of that) Only now with Aero GPX I learned what the mechanic behind that was ...

It's at the very end of the video embedded inside that community guide.


Stats are somewhat self explanatory to me for the most part, But I'll try to point out the two that aren't evident:

Body doesn't just affect how much damage your machine takes, it also affects how effective your spin grinds are. (typically only combat machines have high body and thus the best spin grinds)

And the air speed/mobility stats are specifically for inside slip streams, so if you are dolphin drill diving over them anyway they aren't terribly important.

[Polecat]

Originally posted by YinYin:

Stats are somewhat self explanatory to me for the most part, But I'll try to point out the two that aren't evident:

Body doesn't just affect how much damage your machine takes, it also affects how effective your spin grinds are. (typically only combat machines have high body and thus the best spin grinds)

And the air speed/mobility stats are specifically for inside slip streams, so if you are dolphin drill diving over them anyway they aren't terribly important.

I'll look over the community guide shortly, thank you.

As for stats, my biggest question is actually "sliding". The higher the sliding, the less control the vehicle had? I couldn't figure out what the purpose of it was, as it seemed to make cornering less reliable, so I'm not sure why it's considered a main (simplified) stat... and well as what it's relation to Grip was.

[YinYin]

So the advanced stats don't actually contain sliding by itself.

That is more like a category rating, much like the letters in FZero (not very accurate in any way).

There are 5 categories: Balanced (the top row) machines that are average at everything - top speed (second row) best a straight line speed and stability - sliding (third row) are best at sliding (gaining speed through hyper slides) - flying (fourth row), best in slip streams and using drill dives - combat (last row), best at taking and dealing damage as well as spin grinds

probably confusing that acceleration is still below all that as well ...

Generally sliders tend to have low grip (they start to slide more easily when you steer abruptly) and high hyper sliding (they gain the most speed from that technique).

[Polecat]

Yeah, like I mentioned earlier, I was looking for a high mobility style racer. I tend to favor grip and handling over all other stats, but I can't seem to find one, esp in the starting line-up (I stopped after my first run on that pipe when I couldn't manage to drive in a straight line. That was frustrating for me and I took a break there.) Admittedly I defaulted to using the dude good at Flying while I try to find something better (name escapes me right now), but I'm not having a lot of luck.

[YinYin]

So the top speed machines would technically all fit that bill. But without delicate steering and strafing (or even 2D steering) nothing is very stable on pipes.

I would recommend the hydro blazer though. it feels the most stable and easy to control to me.

edit: nvm - top speeds don't really have high mobility in particular - doubling down on hydro blazer

[Polecat]

Only one problem with that. I still only have access to mostly the starer ships, none of which are "Hydro Blazer". I've only just reached the first cup, so I've been using Passion Kite while I unlock more vehicles.

[YinYin]

Yeah - it unlocks in the third career division.