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Giving more exposure to the tutorial

Started by Roboron, August 25, 2022, 03:03:59 PM

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Roboron

Although Simutrans with pak128/64 now ships with a scenario tutorial, first time players do not know about it. No wonder why, since if you are playing for the first time you don't usually look into the scenarios, but instead try to start a new game.

I think we should try to give more exposure to the tutorial. This topic was discussed briefly some months ago in the discord, but we didn't get to a clear conclusion.

I suggested that the tutorial may be loaded at the first start of the game, so that it is the first thing new players see.

Others like prissi disagreed, arguing that this would be disturbing for developers (or users testing crashes, etc...). Instead, it was proposed to add a button, "Play Tutorial" to the initial menu.

What option do you find best? Do you have any other ideas? (Vote in the poll attached)

(I know the current tutorial may not be the best thing ever done, but it is the best thing we have currently. This thread is not to discuss about it.)

Isaac Eiland-Hall

I can't imagine anyone actually voting the last option, so I will note here that I did so just for fun, but the final tally should subtract that vote and add it to the "add button" option. :)

Yona-TYT

I think that a dialog window at the first start of simutrans can work.

- It will only show once during the first load of simutrans.
 - A setting in the pakset will decide whether or not to show this dialog.

Regarding the tutorial, it is not perfect but there is always room to improve a little, any suggestions for improvements are welcome (Although I think all the work is up to me since very few will understand those scripts hahahaha :P ).

Leartin

If it's gonna be a "play tutorial"-button, how about clicking it in a pakset that does not have a tutorial recommends learning the basics in the pak128 tut? The tutorial gets even more exposure that way, and there is added incentive for pak-devs to adapt it for their pakset.

prissi

Adding a first time only dialoge to choose two tutorial (pak64 and pak128) require to have them installed beforehand, which may not be the case, especially on Android, where due to size restrictions only pak64 can be shipped with the App.

So the scenario must first install a matching pak and then start it.

A start menu entry would only work for Windows, but can be played any time again.

Roboron

Quote from: Isaac Eiland-Hall on August 25, 2022, 08:53:49 PMI can't imagine anyone actually voting the last option, so I will note here that I did so just for fun, but the final tally should subtract that vote and add it to the "add button" option. :)

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Quote from: Yona-TYT on August 25, 2022, 11:57:52 PMI think that a dialog window at the first start of simutrans can work.

I don't know if adding yet another dialogue is a good idea.

Quote from: Leartin on August 26, 2022, 04:39:47 AMIf it's gonna be a "play tutorial"-button, how about clicking it in a pakset that does not have a tutorial recommends learning the basics in the pak128 tut?

I like the general idea but I am not convinced about having a button enabled that does not do what it is supposed to do. That doesn't sound like good design to me. I'll rather have the button disabled and a tooltip showing off that text, but this doesn't sound as effective.

Quote from: prissi on August 26, 2022, 04:46:01 AMA start menu entry would only work for Windows, but can be played any time again.

With start menu I didn't mean the Windows start menu, but the menu that shows when you first open Simutrans initially (the banner).


ceeac

Regarding the second option, it might also be a good idea to add another button to the startup dialogue to load the last saved save. However, there is the reload_and_save_on quit simuconf option which is enabled by default so most players, especially new ones not familiar with simuconf.tab, will not have a need to use it.