Optional tutorial to aid new players

[Cookie95]

Poll inspired by recent increase of new players in public survers (from my experience). Someone could argue that a tutorial would take away from the game's discovering aspect, but I'm talking about the absolute basics here. I've noticed that a number of new players are quick to drop the game out of frustration and I believe giving them this option would encourage them to try and discover more about the game.

[-Variant]

A tutorial or tooltip showing players they can use keys like space, CTRL F, alt, and other various obscure keys/mechanics maybe.
I still think the no-hand holding works really well for DST, being experienced and teaching new survivors how to... survive is part of the charm!
I also really like the die, learn, die, learn, repeat process DS has going for it. 
It'd depend on how intricate the tutorial really was but still feel odd about one.

[Cookie95]

7 minutes ago, -Variant said:

A tutorial or tooltip showing players they can use keys like space, CTRL F, alt, and other various obscure keys/mechanics maybe.
I still think the no-hand holding works really well for DST, being experienced and teaching new survivors how to... survive is part of the charm!
I also really like the die, learn, die, learn, repeat process DS has going for it. 
It'd depend on how intricate the tutorial really was but still feel odd about one.

I agree but it's just that sometimes teaching new players can be a bit overwhelming. If they are interested in learning how to survive they'll most likely check out guides or the wiki anyway and they may end up accidentally discovering things they would have more fun finding out on their own.

[Vixen Doe]

inb4 thread gets locked over heated argument

[JeezSorry]

it would be nice, think of the terraria tutorial, its basic "build science machine"  or "get light at night"

remember the early betas where you had tasks "build torch" or at least teach you how to survive a few days eh? Imagine that as a tutorial 

a basic one

 

also here before anything bad happens, trollface

[Notecja]

just a tip, like Maxwell greeting in DS... Was good enough to let survive to first hound wave.

Also anyway you can just start playing with friends. 

[CarlZalph]

This is a good start, and it follows with how Terraria does things.  With the cross-promo it would almost be too good of an opportunity to pass up.  I'd personally like to see something like the Terraria bestiary in DST too.  A source of the underlying numbers (hp/damage/drop rates/attack range/aggro range/etc) without having to wiki/read the code, all in-game for browsing.

[Mike23Ua]

I’ve explained what is Directly WRONG with DST compared to DS once before..  it seems I need to “Re-explain” that information, while I voted NO let me at least explain Why YOU feel they need a tutorial.

When you play Don’t Starve (single player version I’ll just call DS from now on) the game may be a quote “no hand holding experience” but this information is actually FALSE.

Throughout DS (at least Adventures mode) the game will teach you the Importance behind Many Many MANY Items- by having you spawn into Maxwells worlds with set pieces or pre-crafted items, such as- Thermal Stones, Winter Hats, Campfires, Bug Nets, Miners Hats, Tents, Crockpots Etc.. you spawn directly beside ALL these items throughout the campaign and unless your really really dumb- You figure out what all these things do throughout that game.

With DST- You don’t have that same learning experience so anyone jumping into DST without having first played DS will not have that knowledge ahead of time and they will more then most likely Die.

Now- if you go to world settings in DST and set failed survivors to more or lots before generating a world you can get set pieces with pre-crafted structures and loot for players to wander up on.

So to answer your question- NO a direct hand holding tutorial would be absolutely horrible and just make someone who isn’t willing to learn the game get “stuck” at the point the tutorial ends when they expected more hand holding and was left in the cold.

HOWEVER- making them have to pass a Tutorial that tells them absolutely NOTHING about what to do and instead plays out like you learned about items in DS & they could not play Online until they have completed this single player no hands held tutorial- would probably actually help.

And in fact- when you first load up the game it asks if you want to play solo to learn the basics (with that being highlighted as recommended) or dive into a multiplayer session.

I feel like Klei should FORCE that Tutorial but without on screen detailed information or flashing arrows pointing you in the right direction.

Do it EXACTLY like how players learned in DS (you could maybe even show us In-Game Charlie finally!)

*Charlie appears* “so you think you can survive the world of challenges I will relentlessly throw at you? Well pal, let’s see what you can learn first before I let you survive (or most likely die) with other survivors.”

[Baark0]

the tutorial is searching up the dont starve wiki

[HumanBean150]

I think that important craftables such as the spear, especially armor, the crock pot, the fridge, and firepit should be extra highlighted even without the proper ingredients. 

Something like a red background for only the essentials would be great.

Not too much though, only the absolute basics.

I think it would be a pretty nice compromise, pushing the player without being too intrusive, or taking away from the learning of the game.

Also please Please PLEASE stress how important armor is.

[Cheggf]

There already is a tutorial. You die to darkness, you make a new world, you click on the fire tab to make fire to stop the darkness. 

[Dextops]

i do think there could be some quotes like giving hints to winter like day 18 the character starts saying its chilly ect

[Bugsworth]

for things like how to remove mini signs, how to get misery toadstool or that you can change wilson/webber beard with clean sweeper should be available id say, but guides that just show you what to do. youre not even playing the game at that point wtf. things that are stupid should be helped, but things like fighting, getting food, warding off night, none of that is hard to figure out/is something completely obscure like misery toadstool.

edit: even then, there's public servers that you can turn to for that stuff. tutorials are mostly for chumps. if you find a tutorial covering something that has never been discovered like a glitch or something like that i'd say thats an okay guide to have.

[fimmatek]

11 minutes ago, Dextops said:

i do think there could be some quotes like giving hints to winter like day 18 the character starts saying its chilly ect

Decidious trees dropping their leaves and characters starting to shiver are there for exactely that, hinting that winter is coming 

[Wendy C.]

Tutorial Post #234564

My answer here will be the same as it has always been. 

No, No, No, No.
 

That is all. 

[HowlVoid]

Too be honest...

The game lost a bit of its charm when I learned to thrive. I still love the game but it has become how much can I achieve within a time window, rather than, how long can I survive. Although I still enjoy the game in a different way, I still long for that thrilling experience I had that came with my first death.

The game as it is now, along with the how the modern world works allows for anyone to control their experience. As people have pointed out, if you want a tutorial, then just search for one.  This is meant to be a trial-and-error kind of game. That is how it has been from its release and at one point a tutorial was even considered, but eventually that idea was thrown out. The fact that this much freedom is given to the player is my favorite part about DST.

Something else to consider and what ultimately allowed Klei to come to this conclusion, tutorials have the consequence of affecting how you approach the game. Consider a tutorial where the game instructs you to follow the edges of your map. This strategy is very sound, but now the game has developed a habit for you. There are different ways to approach the start of the game and they have been somewhat locked away from you subconsciously. You are now less likely to jump into wormholes consistently or follow roads at the start of the game to explore your map which are actually faster at the cost of pseudo- randomness (biomes follow a certain pattern). The developers, completely unintentionally, are deciding how you approach the game for you. 

Imagine if the game instruct you to craft a crockpot and then instructs you to make your first meal. This will cement another habit for you. You are less likely to experiment new dishes as a lot of trial and error will result in wet goop. As you experience more and more failures you are more likely to only follow what has been shown to you by the guides. There are characters, such as Wormwood, where an advanced form of play is to NOT bother with the crackpot at all and just eat everything raw.

An open-ended sandbox game that is forming your habits for you, is playing the game for you. 

 

[Capybara007]

16 hours ago, JeezSorry said:

it would be nice, think of the terraria tutorial, its basic "build science machine"  or "get light at night"

remember the early betas where you had tasks "build torch" or at least teach you how to survive a few days eh? Imagine that as a tutorial 

a basic one

That system did not work, they basically "optimized the game to be boring"

[QuartzBeam]

16 hours ago, CodexCorporis said:

inb4 thread gets locked over heated argument

You have made an enemy for life.

[Cheggf]

9 hours ago, fimmatek said:

Decidious trees dropping their leaves and characters starting to shiver are there for exactely that, hinting that winter is coming 

Yeah the game really has a lot of stuff showing you what's happening and letting you think about what to do to solve the problem instead of obnoxiously putting up dialog boxes explicitly spelling out exactly what's happening and exactly what to do. You die to darkness so you click on the fire picture. You see leaves falling off of trees so you click on the clothing picture. You die to an enemy so you click on the spear picture. The game has done well with no tutorial so far because it doesn't need one if the player is paying attention instead of mindlessly pressing buttons.

They already tried a tutorial like what's being suggested here, and it didn't work. Once the words stopped telling people what to do they stopped playing. 

[JeezSorry]

2 hours ago, Capybara007 said:

That system did not work, they basically "optimized the game to be boring"

It will be a "tutorial" not real gameplay, tutorials teach, I was just giving an example, "give them a simple survival task, and then teach them how to achieve goal". And remember, tutorials can end.

[Capybara007]

4 minutes ago, JeezSorry said:

It will be a "tutorial" not real gameplay, tutorials teach, I was just giving an example, "give them a simple survival task, and then teach them how to achieve goal". And remember, tutorials can end.

The fun is that you have to fail to learn

[JeezSorry]

1 minute ago, Capybara007 said:

The fun is that you have to fail to learn

Maybe, can depend on the person though, but is your bias because you had to learn that way?

Maybe so, I wouldn't know

But a nice simple tutorial would be nice, it isn't like you would need to do it

It could ease more players into the game

How many players do you think might have stopped playing after not knowing anything? Hell if I would know

just my thoughts

[ArubaroBeefalo]

9 minutes ago, JeezSorry said:

It will be a "tutorial" not real gameplay, tutorials teach, I was just giving an example, "give them a simple survival task, and then teach them how to achieve goal". And remember, tutorials can end.

But, agaain, that was already tried and didnt work

Also, if a player needs a tutorial to guess that they need light to survive or food before they rage quit or get bored, means that the game isnt made for them

[Capybara007]

Just now, JeezSorry said:

How many players do you think might have stopped playing after not knowing anything? Hell if I would know

Players also enjoy getting blasted by something they didnt knew it existed, like hound waves

And yeah technically dont starve franchise would be more popular if it was more forgiving, but thats how ds works and has been working

Sorry for my engrish

[Cassielu]

Systematic tutorials, NO.

If I remember correctly, developer talked about this at the GCC, and they still apply today.