Couple of things for returning (almost new again) RS player

[actrade]

I'm working through the first tutorial and notice a couple of things that at least for me, where REALLY counterintuitive. First, map mouse hover...why would anyone want this as high as 10000 (10 seconds)? I think the default was 1000 and taking a second every time I hover over a unit felt very clunky to me. When I hover the mouse, I'd like to see both units in a hex nearly immediately. It's great that it's an option but the default for new players IMHO is way too high as I'm using 200. The same can be said about default game delay. Second, in first initial move section of the tutorial it asks for a deliberate move. However, once you set the two waypoints (which by the way the tutorial doesn't tell you how to set waypoints right click on the map it just tells you that you can set up to 6) if you hit the commit button, the game basically locks up. What it doesn't tell you is that you must hit the enter key after hitting commit in order to see the routes. Again, this was not clear at all. Finally, the tutorial says to set screen for the arrival order but again, it doesn't tell you HOW to set the order.

Please don't take this as ripping on the game as I played Red Storm a LOT but not in a long time. I also have played WiTE2 and WiTPAE and too many other complex strategy games to count and I can't recall their tutorials being as non user friendly. I can't imagine a brand new strategy game player working through this tutorial. I would seriously consider re-writing the tutorials to make them more "step by step" and not making assumptions that new players simply may not make.

[CapnDarwin]

Thanks for the feedback on the tutorial. I will see what I can do to update it in our PDF version to make it clearer in the next update. Sometimes when you work on something for a long time, the simple actions get taken for granted. That's all on me.

For the default settings, we can look at that some more and make adjustments for the update. The biggest problem is finding the sweet spot for many of those settings with such a wide range of systems out there. What is slow to you may be too fast for someone else or vice-versa. Same issue with the direction of the mouse wheel for zoom. That is why we have a lot of preferences so users can tweak the game to perform as they like.

[actrade]

Thanks CD. I think it's great that there are user preferences that can be adjusted. I guess I'm coming from a background of playing a LOT of strategy games and it seems to me that the defaults on hover are a bit slow. Of course, users can adjust, but they have to first figure out how to do that lol. I agree with you that sometimes when you work with something too closely, you "don't see the forest through the trees" and in the case of the tutorial (thus far), coming from a long-time strategy game player (57 years old!) and former Red Storm player, I found it extremely difficult just to figure out the opening moves. Thanks for taking a look at it.

[actrade]

Another suggestion. Again, it's been a long time since I've played Red Storm but IIRC, the first part of the tutorial explained what information the counters held. On page 18 of the SS tutorial, it says "all the blue movement markers on the counters should now be black for the initial Hasty Move order." Having played RS, it jarred my memory that the color in the upper corner gave feedback on movement condition, but a new player would have no idea. Again, being a tutorial I think it needs to be absolutely clear to someone with little or no knowledge. I would think that the first thing in the tutorial would be an explanation of what the counters represent.

Please take this as constructive criticism because I love these kinds of games and would like to see a new generation of strategy gamers come along. One thing the WiTE2 tutorials did (which I think is a great idea) is list a page reference in the main manual when describing something in the tutorial. For example, Here's how page 18 of the SS tutorial might look.

. Select the first order and right-click to pop up the orders section of the menu (see page XX for Orders section)
. Select Move Hasty (see page XX for movement section). Click the apply button (nit picking but spelled wrong at appy).
. Repeat the change for the second waypoint order.
. Repeat this for the other Recon unit.
. All the blue movement markers on the counters (see page XX on counters meanings) should now be black for the initial Hasty Move order.

IDK if you've played WiTE2, but it has to be the most complex strategy game out there and the manual is over 500 pages long. However, they have a very well written tutorial that really helps you overcome the "I'll never learn all of this" feeling of being overwhelmed. I think SS could be the new standard for squad strategy games and think a better explained step by step tutorial would really help. Cheers on a great game!

[CapnDarwin]

We have some things like the counters or symbols in the Ops doc and some in the Primer. I can add a suggestion for new players to skim through those items and reference the FM# and page within our PDFs. I can't change the E-Book/Hard Cover. That is in stone at this point.

[actrade]

CD, after skimming through the Battlefield primer and Game operations, the tutorial begins to be clearer. I guess I was just used to opening a tutorial to get my feet wet, but I would strongly recommend pointing new players to the first two documents before trying the tutorial.

[actrade]

second, in first initial move section of the tutorial it asks for a deliberate move. However, once you set the two waypoints (which by the way the tutorial doesn't tell you how to set waypoints right click on the map it just tells you that you can set up to 6) if you hit the commit button, the game basically locks up. What it doesn't tell you is that you must hit the enter key after hitting commit in order to see the routes. Again, this was not clear at all. Finally, the tutorial says to set screen for the arrival order but again, it doesn't tell you HOW to set the order.

CD,

I owe you an apology on this point. I operate a multi monitor set up and I found out that after hitting the commit button, the menu that pops up to set your stance was indeed launching but on my second monitor and under some other windows I had open. It appears that at least on my setup, menu popups the first time they happen are happening on either of my screens, but once you move it where you want it, it defaults to that spot. Very much enjoying the game after reading doing the tutorial after reading the game ops and battle primer PDFS.

[CapnDarwin]

No problem. You have brought up some valid issues that we will address.