Updated Tutorials?

from Sins Forums
I am a complete noob when it comes to strategy games.  The only one I ever played online (and got my ass kicked because I didn't realise that you can build more than one of each building) was Starcraft, and that didn't last long.  So when I tried playing Sins I realised that I have absolutely no clue of what I should be doing.  I remember when I played starcraft, the first levels of each race's campaign were more of tutorial levels that eased you into the game.  I was wondering if the next updates would have some type of a tutorial system for people that don't really play strategy games, because the included ones don't really explain enough.

If not, it would be cool for someone to make a mod for it that would include a much better tutorial system.
strategy
4,526 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
They need to add this, I've been playing for days but always die once the first attack happens.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Well there is the 4 tutorials in the game ... have you gone through them? other then that play 1 vs 1 against an easy comp
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
More than 1 vs. 1, I'd suggest for your first game to do a 2 vs 1: you and an easy or medium AI vs an easy one. You can watch to see what they pit against each other, have an ally to draw enemy fire, and still have an easy enemy to experiment with.

Ben
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Use the pause button a lot. That's what I did so I'd have time to look at the infocards and try to get an idea of what every item did.

I agree that the tutorials could've been better, and that a campaign of some sort would've helped to introduce things slowly. But if you like what you see, it will become easier with time. Just play against one AI (or do a 2 vs. 1, as recommended above), on small map, with easy AI, and you'll have time to get the hang of things.

Turning off the pirate attacks may help as well. And if you set your opponents to fortify, they'll probably barely venture outside their home worlds to attack. This will give you plenty of time to simply screw around building stuff and moving ships around. Once you get the hang of it, heck, you can just abandon the game and start a new one. I do that all the time because I love just messing with the stuff to see what happens. Who says you have to play every game you start to completion? :)

-HM
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I learned by messing around in the tutorial. As long as you don't have an "OK" box at the bottom of your screen you can are free to test a lot of the other functions of the game. It is helpful because you have NO enemy to worry about. Feel free to build up planets and see what things do.

On the other hand, a mini campaign may be a nice addition. If you start out with a limited tech tree and basic abilities and move towards a full tech tree with everything, it might help lessen the learning curve. At least that is what I have seen from RTS games. If that does not work, use the pause button a lot. After restarting just a few games due to noob type blunders, I don't have too many problems any more. I rarely use the pause button anymore unless I get terribly lost with what I was doing.

The last thing I can think of is keep the AI at easy level, turn off the pirates, and play a small 1v1 map until you get the hang of things.

I remember my first game I could not deal with the tech tree very well and I would click on any tech that was ready for research. Now, I make real decisions based on my needs. It gets easier as you go along.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Dang, that means I need to start my current game over, cause I'm playing a 1vs1 game with pirates and taking it REAL slow still not knowing exactly what to do, considering I"m not exactly sure about the huge tech tree and what I should be researching. Thank you very much for your tips, hopefully this issue would be addressed because the learning curve is the biggest turn off for new players.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
I've been playing for almost ten hours and never knew about the pause button!
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
I've been playing for weeks and didn't know about the pause button til I read these forums! =P
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
That's what I mean. The perfect setup would be if there was a mission that they pretty much held your hand all the way through guaranteeing a victory (since it's a tutorial) while on the way to victory you learn all of the controls and grasping the basic gaming mechanics.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
I downloaded the demo on Saturday, played the tutorials and a sample game then bought the full thing online on Sunday. I've played a lot of RTS and TBS games so most of the concepts were pretty familiar to me but even then at the end of the tutorials I'd have liked to be able to continue and play around a bit.

I'm really not bothered about the lack of a single player campaign. Most RTS campaigns that I've played since the original Command and Conquer have been built around introducing a new unit in every mission until in the final couple of missions you can use the entire tech tree, which is slightly pointless and boring and I can't think the last one I actually bothered to play all the way through. But I do think the tutorials here go slightly too far the other way.

I thought Dawn of War had a good tutorial, it basically did what hepcecob suggested. It just a very small scale scenario and hand held you through it. I could jump straight from that into a skirmish game and be reasonably successful. In Sins terms, a tiny 2 planet map with a weak AI on the second planet and you on the first planet, talking you through building a small fleet, a bit of research and an assault (plus an option to continue once you'd won) would have been brilliant.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying the game.