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What Could We Teach Better?
ambassadorkael
Member, Administrator Posts: 2,679 Community Manager
STO has a ton of systems in the game, and we're looking to revitalize how we teach them to you. What do you think would be the most important part of STO to teach to a new player, that we don't currently show off well?
I'm talking about the kind of things that you need to know to succeed in the game, but players generally find out by, say, coming here rather than learning organically through gameplay.
I'm talking about the kind of things that you need to know to succeed in the game, but players generally find out by, say, coming here rather than learning organically through gameplay.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I'd agree, but maybe also go a step or two further.
In other words, give players a "basic" build in a few categories - e.g. a basic beam, cannon, projectile, exotic, tank etc. Show the types of gear, captain skills, specialisations and BOFF powers, plus the optimum sequence you should trigger your powers that make each build work. Explain WHY these builds work well enough.
That way, new (and probably some more experienced also) players can begin to understand what works well on a particular standard build, and then either use that as-is and improve, or use it as a decent starting point for them to experiment further.
Of course, the gear used should be easily obtainable by the average player - i.e. crafted, mission rewards, reputation and/or fleet gear only.
You could then expand later on maybe with some more exotic gear, such as C-Store, Lockbox etc, or some more niche builds as appropriate
Shipbuilding is obvious. No need to go fully into details, but the gear that comes with the ships could be much more optimal. For example, either dual (heavy) cannons + a torp front and turrets and for other ships single beams front and aft + perhaps a torpedo front. So that the new player wouldn't try to copy the current default layout that's incredibly awful.
Ability activation. Just basic stuff. For example, at one point in tutorial, you'd need to activate first Emergency Power to Weapons, then Tactical Team, then Attack Pattern Beta and then Fire at Will at rapid succession.
Power levels. Explain what exactly does what, how you can change the values manually (not only presets) and why it is preferable to have high weapon and auxiliary power levels.
Finally, point players to more advanced resources. I'm fully aware in-game tutorial can't cover everything, but excellent guides need more promotion, just like you did with Qthulu's. Either have some kind of in-game window that'd list all of complicated damage formulas, what piece of equipment belongs to which category etc etc, or take the easier way out and have something in game point to https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/wiki/index.
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.
Number of times lately I've been in PUG Tzenkethi RA's and been the only one paying attention to the torpedoes, for instance
Good points
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Later on I'd have to agree that getting at least a basic knowledge of STFs might help as well.
But definately the builds. Even a basic broadside cruiser build is enough to handle Infected, but knowing how to set one up is key.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
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In fairness a lot of the queues do actually tell you what to do, or at least have a briefing. Trouble is nobody ever reads it, and that's not just limited to new players either.
But... but... who needs to read anything when you can just pew pew DPS everything to death! Because brute forcing everything is obviously the answer to live, the universe, and everything.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
THE BACKSTORY AND PLOT!!!
I mean come one Cryptic, you write all this amazing story blogs and background story and a new player joining now never even knows it exists! Why the hell can you not add it to the ingame library in the ready room, or to an ES terminal. Something to make the game world feel a little bit more "alive" would be nice.
Doesn't really deal with mechanics issues, but it shouldn't be neglected.
Not 'live'
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
They used to have it on the website (along with an in-universe overview of all the major factions), but took it all down because "the wiki does that job for us". I'm still peeved about that; the lore was what brought me into STO in the first place.
There is the daily event at Starfleet Academy, but that's in bits and pieces that aren't even given in chronological order.
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
-Thomas Marrone
I was suggesting this more along the lines of - these are standard builds with standard gear etc - and this is why they work. Kinda as a baseline for players to then be able to build off, as they'd actually understand the concept behind the build in a bit more detail than just "don't mix cannons & beams", or "don't use rainbow builds" etc. Of course, that might encourage cookie cutters, but if it was presented as a starting point with white quality gear for example, most players would at least go and get better gear - which would then encourage them to experiment due to the choice they'd have.
Play-through tutorials for each Rep queue adapted for single player that new accounts must complete on one character. Learning organically through gameplay is wasted on some! A step-by-step (and first-time unskippable) playthough would help alot of unsure players in the game and highlight the value of hitting Optionals!
I see what you're saying but there's more to putting good gear than mark or rarity - there's also how to compare different pieces of gear to understand how they'll work together, that's more than just the mark or rarity of individual items.
However, putting gear aside for a sec, there is still the point that getting the most from your build also depends on the right skills (captain and BOFF), and firing them off in the right sequence, and at the right point in combat - this isn't something that's explained too well IMO, I often see (and to be fair, do it myself sometimes) players firing everything in any haphazard sequence, that is almost certainly reducing their overall effectiveness
Exactly the V-Rex fight in the Dyson Battle zone is a prime example of this.
1. Omega Silo level metre
2. Voice over telling you to shoot engineers (although when targeted they are medics)
3. Fly in warning via chat window.
4. Actual tutorial the 1st time you enter the zone.
Yet folks still pound on a V-Rex and silos fail
You can't teach common sense. I've worked in customer service for over 17 years and even if you hand the info directly to someone like for instance a phone bill all itemised, they still want "you" to read it to them.
Hello rubber banding my old friend, time to bounce around the battlezone again, where are all my bug reports going?, out of love with this game I am falling, As Cryptic fail to acknowledge a problem exists, Shakes an angry fist, And from Support all I'm hearing are the sounds of silence.
I'd also say ship builds. Below are some commonly asked questions from players both new and not new to the game that aren't easily answered by a quick pm in chat:
1. "I put a console on my ship that says +10% dmg. Why doesn't my dmg go up 10%?"
2. "What are cat A and cat B dmg?"
3. "What are diminishing returns and how are they calculated?"
4. "What are key binds and how would I use them?"
STO math sometimes can't be simplified but it can be explained better. I don't know if tooltips, an interactive STO calculator, video guide or whatever would be best but ship builds definitely could to be taught better.
I agree.
The vast majority have no idea about Cat A or B damage because it is never mentioned anywhere in the game. Things such as damage boosting consoles do need more clarity in whether it's just boosting the just base value or an overall damage boost after the fact.
That's down to the dil farmers, newer players hear that Dyson ground is one of the best places to get dil, and it's from shooting V-Rex, what they don't find out until later is that they don't get anything if they fail to secure the silo.
Having an instance full of bots doesn't help either.
My character Tsin'xing
Honestly when I first made an engineer I had NO idea how I should take it. It wasn't science with all the healing abilities and it wasn't tactical with all the pew pew boom abilities. I found myself taking it in a direction that leaned more towards a tactical style game play but that was just by being a tactical captain before that. Since the Tank/healer/dps setup doesn't really exist in STO because everything is a power creep DPS blowout I'm not sure there is much beyond doing things the tac way anymore outside of mysterious science voodoo space magic builds. And even that is stated to be better done on tactical captains by some people.
When getting a new ship, we are not asking for MK XV epic gear on brand new ships, but we are asking for the ships to have either a full beam or full cannon set up on the ships so new players that don't know can have an idea on how a PROPER ship set up should be. Example: When you get the Tier 5 Dyson Destroyer, it isn't loaded with beams AND cannons of what ever energy is picked for your faction, but it is loaded with Dual Beam Banks and Beam arrays and a fore and aft torpedo of BASIC Mk X Protonic Polaron, since the ship syncs well with that energy type.
And what about a basic tutorial about the "Right way" to spend your skill points.
What about a tutorial that goes more into how the systems work, instead of just a one sentence clickable text box. Especially for new players.
I just wanted to get my two strips of latinum,
All in all, if you want a way to have a better tutorial, bring back the "Holy Trinity" of Healer/Tank/DPS. Otherwise just make everything Tac based and give ONLY one set of skills and just be done with the whole damn thing.