New Player: Learning to Survive
New player here. Have watched a number of videos about the game, so have some idea how to play, but my first actual in-game time was with the new Learning to Survive scenario in playtest.
Overall, I found it somewhat frustrating. I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out what to do because I can find the control panels, but don't have any clue how to accomplish the objective. And Good.bot is telling me to do things that don't make sense. For example, I think it's talking about a cockpit and I'm nowhere near a ship.
To get started, I would much prefer a bit more of a directed-task approach -- at least to introduce some of the basics to get started, and how the overall scenario should be played. Having to search for and figure out goals, as the initial part of a tutorial in an unfamiliar game/environment is rather confusing (at least to me). Granted, this might break the immersion initially, but after getting past some "how to" basics, immersion would be lots more fun, I think.
My suggestions:
- I would ditch Good.bot because it's not keeping sync with me; it's more confusing than helpful. It's like it's a state machine that isn't doing any backtracking and is using a location context once I get to a place in the scenario but not rewinding when I move somewhere else.
- I would place some LCD's with instructions on the starting platform with some detailed instructions about what to do on that platform (like a big "Come over here" sign where I should go first). And when I complete a task, illuminate the next LCD.
- Make exploration of the first platform rather linear, taking me through the tasks in sequence to help me get a feel for the game. Leave the non-linear "exploration" type of stuff for alternate platforms/asteroids, once I complete the stuff on the first one. That will give me the basic knowledge of how the game works before I do more non-linear exploring.
- For each platform/asteroid, give a more clear idea of what to do there. Remember, I'm learning the game. The names of the platforms/indicators help somewhat, but an LCD that names the base/vehicle would be nice.
Overall, I like the game. But as a tutorial for first-timers, I think a bit more direction, just to get me started, would be very helpful. Once I know a bit more how the game works, exploration for finding tasks/goals (in the latter parts of the scenario), would be much more effective. This would obviously be boring/tedious for experienced players, but it would help newbies get into playing the "real" game more quickly.
All this is only my opinion, of course. BTW -- I think the approach to having public tests to collect feedback before going live with a release is awesome. Major props for doing that!
I like this feedback
Hey guys
I am in the same boat as far as being a new player. I play other games of this genre type (empyrion / stationeers) and decided to see if the survival mode is the last missing piece i am looking for to start playing. As such i have no experience with this game other than occasional posts read on the game or youtube videos. When i first booted up the game i was presented with a choice to watch some starter youtube video to get the basics, which i did watch the first few.
After starting the scenario it started with a good coverage of the basics i had learned such as moving around with the jetpack and such. When it came to the goodbot portion i found or i misunderstood the use of the asking question portion because i was not able to get any benefit from it or could i get a response just to see if it answers basic questions. When the good bot mentioned to click on a section to start a task i went immediately to the solar panel section thinking this was my starting point. It showed to use the welder tool and while using it the comment was made i didn't have the part needed. At this point i was even more confused as no further instructions were given and i couldn't find a way to get anything else started. After poking around for 15-20 minutes i found the item stored in a crate and even though i could see it in an inventory i found i had to be close to its original location to transfer it over, but due to my inexperience it took me a while to figure out i had to do that versus not knowing it was an item that didnt belong in my inventory. When completed i was tasked with O2 generation, which i tried to follow as best as i could but after 15 minutes i found i needed a break since it wasnt clicking in my head.
Regardless i enjoy a challenge and will try again once the survival portion is released to the public, but i also wanted to share my 2 cents in this post since someone else started something similar.
Hey guys
I am in the same boat as far as being a new player. I play other games of this genre type (empyrion / stationeers) and decided to see if the survival mode is the last missing piece i am looking for to start playing. As such i have no experience with this game other than occasional posts read on the game or youtube videos. When i first booted up the game i was presented with a choice to watch some starter youtube video to get the basics, which i did watch the first few.
After starting the scenario it started with a good coverage of the basics i had learned such as moving around with the jetpack and such. When it came to the goodbot portion i found or i misunderstood the use of the asking question portion because i was not able to get any benefit from it or could i get a response just to see if it answers basic questions. When the good bot mentioned to click on a section to start a task i went immediately to the solar panel section thinking this was my starting point. It showed to use the welder tool and while using it the comment was made i didn't have the part needed. At this point i was even more confused as no further instructions were given and i couldn't find a way to get anything else started. After poking around for 15-20 minutes i found the item stored in a crate and even though i could see it in an inventory i found i had to be close to its original location to transfer it over, but due to my inexperience it took me a while to figure out i had to do that versus not knowing it was an item that didnt belong in my inventory. When completed i was tasked with O2 generation, which i tried to follow as best as i could but after 15 minutes i found i needed a break since it wasnt clicking in my head.
Regardless i enjoy a challenge and will try again once the survival portion is released to the public, but i also wanted to share my 2 cents in this post since someone else started something similar.
I think what the "Learning To Survive" scenario was really lacking was logical progression. As an experienced player I found it fun to play through and find all the things. But I could go to each of the things in any order. Which meant I was left fighting a pirate drone and a station with a grinder and a rifle. After I killed the drone I did manage to improvise some rocket launchers onto a small ship. But a new player might not have known that was possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2igSlvRrpoU&t=964s
P.S. I also noticed I had full access to the entire tech tree. If we're teaching players how to survive. We need to teach them how to unlock new tech.
I think what the "Learning To Survive" scenario was really lacking was logical progression. As an experienced player I found it fun to play through and find all the things. But I could go to each of the things in any order. Which meant I was left fighting a pirate drone and a station with a grinder and a rifle. After I killed the drone I did manage to improvise some rocket launchers onto a small ship. But a new player might not have known that was possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2igSlvRrpoU&t=964s
P.S. I also noticed I had full access to the entire tech tree. If we're teaching players how to survive. We need to teach them how to unlock new tech.
I too am an experienced player and I went through the Learning to Survive scenario pretty thoroughly. The scenario could certainly use more guidance for new players (and some railings!) Overall, I though it was a very cool set up, but I do agree that for a brand new player there was not enough direction to teach them what they need to do. If I had not been playing, I would not have known how to do several things.
I too am an experienced player and I went through the Learning to Survive scenario pretty thoroughly. The scenario could certainly use more guidance for new players (and some railings!) Overall, I though it was a very cool set up, but I do agree that for a brand new player there was not enough direction to teach them what they need to do. If I had not been playing, I would not have known how to do several things.
Pretty much concur with above. As someone with over 2400hrs in the game, I found the instruction piecemeal at best. Considering this is supposed to be for completely new players to get to grips with SE it really needs to be a handheld expedition. If you want to include a part where you allow the player to test what they've been taught, have them finish the opening scenarios with a task to build a jump drive on a ship and head toward a gps marker that appears once the lesson segments are complete - this new area could be completely free-form, allowing them to so as they please.
Pretty much concur with above. As someone with over 2400hrs in the game, I found the instruction piecemeal at best. Considering this is supposed to be for completely new players to get to grips with SE it really needs to be a handheld expedition. If you want to include a part where you allow the player to test what they've been taught, have them finish the opening scenarios with a task to build a jump drive on a ship and head toward a gps marker that appears once the lesson segments are complete - this new area could be completely free-form, allowing them to so as they please.
Some of my observations:
Some of my observations:
It's really easy to loose the orange markers depending on the order you go to them in, I had to use entity list to find the mayday one with the jump drive again after going to the combat one and backtrack to find others. New players may not realise there is more to the scenario when there is no more markers.
The projector one told me I failed the scenario when I used the terminal to weld up and disconnect the merge block and not the buttons, and when I got out of the ship it made it exploded.
There is no information on G and K menus and toolbar setup either. Basic controls are covered in the story scenario but you cannot progress past Mission 03 in that, you can't get the grinder out of the box without shooting and rewelding the container. After that the refuelling connector fails to connect and cannot be ground down.
Most of the tutorial ships have terrible braking thust and there is no information on dampeners, when you get out of most ships relative dampening defaults to on on your jetpack and it doesn't tell you about it.
I agree unknown signals are distracting.
Definitely think it need more hand holding, I dont think I'd have known what to do if I didn't have so many hours in SE.
It's really easy to loose the orange markers depending on the order you go to them in, I had to use entity list to find the mayday one with the jump drive again after going to the combat one and backtrack to find others. New players may not realise there is more to the scenario when there is no more markers.
The projector one told me I failed the scenario when I used the terminal to weld up and disconnect the merge block and not the buttons, and when I got out of the ship it made it exploded.
There is no information on G and K menus and toolbar setup either. Basic controls are covered in the story scenario but you cannot progress past Mission 03 in that, you can't get the grinder out of the box without shooting and rewelding the container. After that the refuelling connector fails to connect and cannot be ground down.
Most of the tutorial ships have terrible braking thust and there is no information on dampeners, when you get out of most ships relative dampening defaults to on on your jetpack and it doesn't tell you about it.
I agree unknown signals are distracting.
Definitely think it need more hand holding, I dont think I'd have known what to do if I didn't have so many hours in SE.
500+ hour player here. I bought SE in 2016, which had a 10+4 chapter tutorial. Those tutorials were so good, when compared to the campaigns after that. I think it was a great mistake to remove them without having a good substitute. I even get them from game files and add into my saves folder, to play them again.
Learning to Survive felt like an incomplete tutorial. I tried to play it mostly like a new player. I tried to not understand things without game tells. It was ok at the beginning(for learning basic controls). But after a few minutes, I had to use my experience.
-No jetpack tutorial: I know how to fly but I didn't born flying. I was confused as many people when I started SE. This new tutorial says "X to jetpack" and a few controls and thats it. I would love the jetpack tutorial of old tutorials. Dat jetpack crash course was amazing. Running from spaceballs etc.
-No objective ends: It wasn't giving information when objectives ended. I was confused about it. Especially repair the drone and jump drive missions. I went to hidden base and nothing happened. I lost the jump drive ship in an accident and just went back to starting platform flying.
-Objective orders/places were confusing: I did some objectives. After that, I didn't know what to do. I got back to the starting platform and a new objective appeared on the way. Then 2 more: jump drive and projector. I did the jump drive(I don't know if I completed it). I lost the other one and couldn't find again. I also saw something called "Observation Platform" but I don't know if it was a completed mission or not.
-Not enough information: I told to place an assembler and connect to refinery. But I wasn't informed about conveyor sides of production blocks. I just placed the basic assembler(I was told to make an assembler and it had "assembler" in its title). I probably even connected wrong side of the basic assembler. Then it told about upgrades but I was like "wut?".
-Very incomplete feeling objectives: I flied the drone with a gatling. It told me to defend the platform but there were no intruders. I was so bored that I shoot at my astronaut.
-Too many incomplete blocks: I saw many incomplete blocks everywhere. They were not for aesthetics I believe. They were like "fix this door to pass". I was boring of "get the component and fix" cycle. I'm not even talking about ship building tutorial. If I was talking about it, it was more like a "ship repairing tutorial". I believe it was completely pointless after many other objectives.
Overall, I wouldn't release this tutorial in a major release. ROS4 campaign feat Markus was a better tutorial I think. At least it was much more complete.
As a positive comment, I liked docking the starting platform ship to other objective platforms, as ships do in real world(remember how platform of the ship was placed near the starting platform). Slowly approach, get ship platform close to objective platform, then walk to the other platform without flying... I'm a fan of it. I also like how trains stop by station platforms.
I like SE and ME Keen. Please don't get my feedback all negative. I want to have a better game.
500+ hour player here. I bought SE in 2016, which had a 10+4 chapter tutorial. Those tutorials were so good, when compared to the campaigns after that. I think it was a great mistake to remove them without having a good substitute. I even get them from game files and add into my saves folder, to play them again.
Learning to Survive felt like an incomplete tutorial. I tried to play it mostly like a new player. I tried to not understand things without game tells. It was ok at the beginning(for learning basic controls). But after a few minutes, I had to use my experience.
-No jetpack tutorial: I know how to fly but I didn't born flying. I was confused as many people when I started SE. This new tutorial says "X to jetpack" and a few controls and thats it. I would love the jetpack tutorial of old tutorials. Dat jetpack crash course was amazing. Running from spaceballs etc.
-No objective ends: It wasn't giving information when objectives ended. I was confused about it. Especially repair the drone and jump drive missions. I went to hidden base and nothing happened. I lost the jump drive ship in an accident and just went back to starting platform flying.
-Objective orders/places were confusing: I did some objectives. After that, I didn't know what to do. I got back to the starting platform and a new objective appeared on the way. Then 2 more: jump drive and projector. I did the jump drive(I don't know if I completed it). I lost the other one and couldn't find again. I also saw something called "Observation Platform" but I don't know if it was a completed mission or not.
-Not enough information: I told to place an assembler and connect to refinery. But I wasn't informed about conveyor sides of production blocks. I just placed the basic assembler(I was told to make an assembler and it had "assembler" in its title). I probably even connected wrong side of the basic assembler. Then it told about upgrades but I was like "wut?".
-Very incomplete feeling objectives: I flied the drone with a gatling. It told me to defend the platform but there were no intruders. I was so bored that I shoot at my astronaut.
-Too many incomplete blocks: I saw many incomplete blocks everywhere. They were not for aesthetics I believe. They were like "fix this door to pass". I was boring of "get the component and fix" cycle. I'm not even talking about ship building tutorial. If I was talking about it, it was more like a "ship repairing tutorial". I believe it was completely pointless after many other objectives.
Overall, I wouldn't release this tutorial in a major release. ROS4 campaign feat Markus was a better tutorial I think. At least it was much more complete.
As a positive comment, I liked docking the starting platform ship to other objective platforms, as ships do in real world(remember how platform of the ship was placed near the starting platform). Slowly approach, get ship platform close to objective platform, then walk to the other platform without flying... I'm a fan of it. I also like how trains stop by station platforms.
I like SE and ME Keen. Please don't get my feedback all negative. I want to have a better game.
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