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This games lacks comprehensible documentation
angrytarg
Member Posts: 11,008 Arc User
Do you know the difference between base damage and actual damage? Do you know what a category 2 buff is? Do you know wether or not armour consoles feature "diminishing returns" and what that would mean in practice? What is overcapping and when does it occur? What is a firing cycle?
Your answer to some or all of the above might be "yes", but if you know these things you certainly didn't learn them by studying the games' documentation or in-game help but used the forums, reddit or twitter to learn about it.
Currently the supposed "Admirality nerf" causes a lot of confusion. Patchnotes talk about "limiting the daily amount of campaign XP to 10.000", causing an uproar of people complaining that "XP was nerfed again", not realising that "campaign XP" and "specialization/character XP" are two different things.
I feel a lot of those issues could be countered by having a comprehensible documentation, explaining even the most basic features. Basic stuff like how damage and resists are calculated and what "100% cooldown reduction" mean or even more complex, what category 1 or 2 buffs are is nowhere explained but sometimes mentioned when devs explain stuff.
Maybe I'm mistaken, but I feel there's a lot to be done about that and it would benefit the playerbase AND the devs ultimately.
EDIT: I feel the need to edit the OP. When I talk about documentation I mean a type of document (yes, reading, that's the thing hurting your eyes and makey you go "boooring!") explaining the rules of the game. That does not mean what button makes you jump, it means explaining how the game is supposed to work. Things like "Why does a +35% damage console only increase my actual damage output by 12% of what I had?" or "What does +35 resistance mean?" because it certainly doesn't mean what you think at first.
Your answer to some or all of the above might be "yes", but if you know these things you certainly didn't learn them by studying the games' documentation or in-game help but used the forums, reddit or twitter to learn about it.
Currently the supposed "Admirality nerf" causes a lot of confusion. Patchnotes talk about "limiting the daily amount of campaign XP to 10.000", causing an uproar of people complaining that "XP was nerfed again", not realising that "campaign XP" and "specialization/character XP" are two different things.
I feel a lot of those issues could be countered by having a comprehensible documentation, explaining even the most basic features. Basic stuff like how damage and resists are calculated and what "100% cooldown reduction" mean or even more complex, what category 1 or 2 buffs are is nowhere explained but sometimes mentioned when devs explain stuff.
Maybe I'm mistaken, but I feel there's a lot to be done about that and it would benefit the playerbase AND the devs ultimately.
EDIT: I feel the need to edit the OP. When I talk about documentation I mean a type of document (yes, reading, that's the thing hurting your eyes and makey you go "boooring!") explaining the rules of the game. That does not mean what button makes you jump, it means explaining how the game is supposed to work. Things like "Why does a +35% damage console only increase my actual damage output by 12% of what I had?" or "What does +35 resistance mean?" because it certainly doesn't mean what you think at first.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
#TASforSTO
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Post edited by angrytarg on
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And the beauty of a wiki is that anyone can edit them or add content.
The cat 1/2 buff thing is a player invented thing, so shouldn't necessarily be in any in game documentation.
I do agree that there needs to be more and clearer explanations.... however, most people skip tutorials... most people 'F' through dialogues and don't click on the additional options which explain things. Most people don't even run normal queues before advanced in order to learn how they work, so adding in-game documentation would be pretty pointless, because few people would ever actually read it.
There's actually an interact in the tutorial that explains firing arcs (although it confuses beam banks with arrays). I bet only a small handful of people know it exists.
I know the wiki, but this is like using the foundry to substitute for dev created content. I believe that the fundamentals should be explained in the game or readme itself, not via third party tools. But maybe that's just me
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It can take a lot of time to figure out what everything does and how it all works together, and so much of it is scattered in so many places that aren't actually put out by Cryptic.
I've often encountered someone in KAGA who would explain, possibly with copy-pasted text, that no one should leave the first room, instead wait and lure the borg to the team to save some time.
In most cases, none of this advice was taken. While I can certainly agree that the information should be available in-game for those that do want to read it, I doubt the more technical stuff like different tiers of buffs will be actually read. I don't think it will solve anything. Just look how many people you see flying or walking around with a few or even a dozen injuries.
There's a lot of people in this game who just want to pew pew the enemies they encounter. They're not interested in useful hints, so I very much doubt they'd be prepared to read the even more complicated stuff.
No, there isn't any beauty to it...at all.
Now with that out of the way, I can understand why they don't have much in the way of documentation or tutorials etc. because they keep changing, and therefore they would also needed to be updated.
This trend of lack of documentation isn't exclusive to STO sadly, many games are heading in this direction for one reason or another. I hate it. Every game I got used to come with a comprehensive manual. Heck, even new triple A title games no longer come with a manual anymore.
At this point, I'd be happy with a simple data base available to show all ship stats, every console & weapon information etc.
Well, the cat 1/2 definition is player invented, but the underlying game mechanic is not (not every +10% bonus thingy is applied the same way. Two items might have the exact same tooltip, but behave differently, and that's not good).
Yes, but powers get modified and changed with almost every patch, and new things added, so you would never be able to implement any of that in any kind of documentation realistically.
Laziness is something that no end of documentation can overcome. There's actually a mission on ESD that teaches how to use the medical officer. I doubt many have done it.
Seriously though, I agree. This game has too many things that do *something*. But what that *something* is or how big is the difference compared to something else, nobody knows for sure. How big is exactly the dmg boost you get from APB? ... Anyone??
U.S.S. Buteo Regalis - Brigid Multi-Mission Surveillance Explorer build
R.R.W. Ri Maajon - Khopesh Tactical Dreadnought Warbird build
My Youtube channel containing STO videos.
That's the issue though... for a start, most things are relative. It's not like it's just a finite number. You can find out a large proportion of the information specific to your ship by mousing over tooltips in Sol space.
That's great, but there's a catch. You need to *buy* it first prior to you discovering what it actually does.
What I'd like is a data list that I can view and hover over with the actual effect of what it provides prior to having to make the purchase.
Edit: I think I may have discovered why Cryptic doesn't do documentations now.
For example, on the second mission, why have a shuttle cut scene, when they could get you to manually fly the shuttle down to Vulcan through a series of gates etc, which in turn would teach you more about plotting and throttle control.
It's IP, they don't want another developer using it as a template or guide. This isn't open source programming here...
The result is that players always have to figure things out for themselves. That's the way it works.
The sto gamepedia is not the best, and is frequently misleading to those who don't pay close enough(any) attention to official blogs or how things end up working in-game (or it's edited by clueless individuals who think they're clever), but it's better than nothing.
The various game podcasts are not much better, quite frankly, since the people on them frequently perpetuate and reinforce the ignorant patter on the forums,wiki, and in-game chat.
If you want all of those things explained, OP, write up a document, or page, that explains those things in a succinct manner that would be helpful to all the people who dislike reading and thinking.
So things like resistance's diminishing returns, category X bonus etc. are all "strategy guide" material, not "tutorial / manual" material.
And due to the constantly changing nature of the MMO world, perhaps the wiki is a more appropriate "strategy guide" than a paper manual - but that also requires a much more involved commitment amongst the playerbase / dev team / community team... (hint hint PWE / Trendy - full time wiki guy...)
And as far as player confusion goes - any reduction to any number draws a cry of "nerf". I sometimes think that "misrepresentations" are hyperbole in a misguided attempt to cancel the reduction - get enough people thinking that the spec point XP earnings are affected, the inevitable firestorm might get the admiralty change cancelled type maneuver...
I mean, it's been working for BFaW all these years (remember, the whole driver of Aux2Bat was to take a single copy of TT and BFaW and get them near-100% uptime on low-tac-slot cruisers), we have devs saying a "clearly broken A2B and BFaW system can't be repaired due to community outrage unless a 'proper' method is eventually stumbled upon"...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Even with shiney pictures and audio reading of the documentation users will then complain that it's annoying and they want it turned off or what ever the documentation is about done for them automagically.
So while having some documentation would be nice almost no one would read it. Know what happens to most game manuals? They get lost or thrown away unless there is some value to them outside of the game itself. That and you have to have a writer who understands the systems in question write the manual. Not to mention the unending argument of "it doesn't work that way."
Just my humble opinion. Not necessarily disagreeing but pointing out the mentality around the magical "documentation."
I've never used the wiki or any other guide. I learned alot from prior knowledge of gaming (30+ years), observation and playing the tutorial. Most of it is having the common sense to hover your mouse over something or right-clicking then 'info'. It's not that hard, yet so many don't take the time to do the tutorial or even pay attention to it!
^^ This + sifting through the TRIBBLE on this forum and in-game and in the wiki, then synthesizing some kind of ad-hoc understanding of how things work. An ongoing process that is always being refined and updated. That's part of the mental work of figuring out and playing a game. If some people don't want to do it, or are too lazy and want it all spelled out for them... or, misunderstand and with excessive exuberance trumpet their misunderstanding as arrogant cleverness... it's their own fault for being pathetic, quite frankly.
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Agreed Angrytarg...Would be nice if the Community manager could create/edit another Forum category named: "New Player Help" or the like nomenclature. Even though we have "The Academy" it is not very well advertised as a fountain of knowledge place for information. That nomenclature does not work for some people trying to find out information about power/levels/skills/etc and should be re-named to something more generic. The best source of knowledge (besides wiki) are the players and even DEVs should post necessary stickies for players to find out where to get information about powers, skills, damage categories and yes even the difference between "Campaign XP" and regular XP.
The tutorial doesn't adress any of the issues I outlined in the OP. I assume you either didn't read anything or you don't understand the problem. STO actually has a rather complex (or better: chaotic) ruleset with a lot of in-game tool tips displaying inaccurate and contradictionary information and lots of mechanics remain invisible for people not using third party methods to gain that knowledge. Documenting one's program is something elementary and explaining the rules of the game to players should not be an obscurity. Rules do not mean "how to play" (that's tutorial stuff) but "how things work".
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But surely 'how things work' should be necessary in understanding 'how to play'?
The only way to actually implement what you want successfully, would be through the tutorial and early missions. A 'user manual' would simply be a waste of time, because 99% of players would never read it.
The game should teach players how things work, through game play.
That's insufficient. You cannot learn the numbers by heart through the tutorial, there needs to be easily accesible documentation on the ruleset so you can look up stuff. Especially you, advertising the dps race, should understand the importance of that. Sure, someone already made the excel tables and it's in the net, but none of that is official and to this day the game never declared how the basic formula for calculating damage is. People aren't required to read it, it's still a standard a game should come with. When you were already around back in the day you surely remember games like "A320 Airbus" or "Falcon 4.0" which came with hundreds of pages of documentation. Role playing games with thick rulebooks to familiarize yourself with everything, even though you have it in the game (the German "Das Schwarze Auge" trilogy for example comes with a thick book actually explaining the adapted pen and paper ruleset, D&D certainly did something similiar). Those were the days
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