Proposal for New Players

[Trugrit]

ggeilman,

I’m sorry about your eyesight issues.

If I could I would make a player guide just for you alone. Your own personal guide.

The fact is I’m just not good enough. I’m not sure there is a player who could do it all alone.
The game is that complex. It does not look like it is that complex on the surface but it is.

I just can’t go into it like I would need to. It would have lots of errors in it.

Think about the original design team at Henderson Field Designs.
They were a remarkable group, maybe a once in a lifetime group.

In humble opinion, and I have been studying the game for the last ten years, they produced
a Pacific wargame that is an Everest in Kansas. A game that is so far above any other
Pacific War strategy game that it makes my mind boggle.

Any player who does not think that has not looked at the game long enough.

No Pacific strategy game can touch it to this very day.

I’m a Navy veteran. I served on two amphibious ships and a Destroyer and with this game
it was like God reached down from heaven and said I’m going to give this old veteran
a game that will keep him happy for the rest of his life.

This magnificent design team produced a manual of around 320 pages that barely
scratches the surface of what is there. There are errors in it and it did not come close
to the reality of the game.

[RangerJoe]

I think that the errors in are more the result of the changes made by the updates than any intentional or unintentional error.

[Trugrit]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

I think that the errors in are more the result of the changes made by the updates than any intentional or unintentional error.

You are right

When I say errors I really mean errors of omission.
You can’t really cover this game well with any documentation.

[Yaab]

Deleting any mention about THE TUTORIAL from the manual would be a good start.

[RangerJoe]

If a person considered the Coral Sea scenario a tutorial and the Guadalcanal scenario a second tutorial scenario then that person would not be too wrong.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

If a person considered the Coral Sea scenario a tutorial and the Guadalcanal scenario a second tutorial scenario then that person would not be too wrong.

They don't meet the criteria for a tutorial because they do not explain, step-by-step, how to do things or what is happening as a consequence of settings. But a storyboard arrangement of the type of graphic pages that Trugrit posted folded into a video of the mini-scenarios would sure help a new player get a feel for the interface.

The whole idea of Strategic/Operational/Tactical plans and execution thereof is a Level 301 class that should be brought in after the player has some hands-on experience with game controls and how they affect a turn.

[Erik Rutins]

In a lot of ways, Uncommon Valor was the real tutorial for WITP, then the smaller WITP scenarios and eventually you stepped up to the full campaign.

[Tanaka]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

In a lot of ways, Uncommon Valor was the real tutorial for WITP, then the smaller WITP scenarios and eventually you stepped up to the full campaign.

Agreed now that's a game that could really use a remaster to get it working again. I still have the CD but cannot for the life of me get it to work anymore. All kinds of monitor scale and lag issues. UV is still a great game and offers an entire 1942 campaign that WITPAE does not. WITPAE only offers Coral Sea and Guadalcanal separately. UV is what started it all for many of us. Wish I could still play it!

[ggeilman]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

If a person considered the Coral Sea scenario a tutorial and the Guadalcanal scenario a second tutorial scenario then that person would not be too wrong.

I did Coral Sea before I started the campaign. As it is April of 42 maybe I should do Guadalcanal. I just don't want to mess up my current game.

[Maallon]

May I suggest that is maybe not actually necessary to create a exhaustive guide that covers every detail of the game.
It could be already enough to just ease in the entrance to the game to get people hooked on it.
After they fell in love with the game, they likely will develop some kind of self-initiative in learning the game, be that searching the forum and asking questions here, reading AARs, watching youtubers or just simply playing the game and making mistakes.
Teaching the basics of the game to bring people to the point there they fall in love with it is maybe everything that is needed. WITPAE isn't really a game where you can hold peoples hands all the time, they have to develop a self-initiative in learning it otherwise they will eventually drop out.

To ease the access to the game I would suggest that it probably already enough to update the manual so it includes the patch notes and reflects the current state of the game and create some additional small scenarios for learning and practicing diverse mechanics of the game.
The Coral Sea Scenario isn't actually a bad starting scenario though a scenario before that that teaches air combat could be helpful.
The bigger problem is probably the Guadalcanal scenario that is just too big of a step up compared to the Coral Sea.
Also the Guadalcanal scenario mainly teaches logistics and amphibious invasions, you kind of need to already know the basics of land-, air-, naval combat at that point.

This is just a train of thought I had, but I think this approach would be somewhat easier to make a reality than making a guide/documentation that covers the whole game.

[Maallon]

ORIGINAL: ggeilman

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

If a person considered the Coral Sea scenario a tutorial and the Guadalcanal scenario a second tutorial scenario then that person would not be too wrong.

I did Coral Sea before I started the campaign. As it is April of 42 maybe I should do Guadalcanal. I just don't want to mess up my current game.

If you are playing stock scenarios you can just start a new scenario without issues, just make sure you don't overwrite your saves from your current game or make a new save for your current game further down so you can't overwrite it accidentally.
Or is there another issue that you think would prevent you from starting a new scenario?

[tolsdorff]

I remember when I started playing, I was beyond completely overwhelmed. I didn't know what to do at all.

What helped me the most at that time to get started was Sardaukar's excellent tutorial , which can be found here : https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2564541
I found it via this forum topic: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2576157.

Sardaukar's tutorial gave me enough information to do some useful turns and actually start playing the game. It helped me cross the first crevice of this giant crevice filled glacier.
After doing these first basic turns, the information found in the manual made a lot more sense to me, because I had this very rudimentary mental framework of doing the first couple of turns in some kind of a useful manner.

The 2nd thing that helped me above all else, was figuring out how to use Google to search for answers on this forum. Most, if not all, questions have already been asked dozens of times. And most have been answered dozens of times as well. With Google and a little perseverance, it can be found quite easily.


After playing as the allies for a couple of years, I am now trying to get a handle on the Japanese side of things.
2 resources that helped me a lot to to do the baby steps :

- Numdydar's production primer https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3329605, which helped me get some kind of basic understanding of the Japanese economy.
- Kull's spreadsheet https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... =&#3253803 which is beyond excellent.


Neither of these 3 resources (Sardaukar, Numdydar, Kull) will give anyone a deep understanding of the game mechanics, but it will help you in the most important step: getting started in the first place.

I would also suggest installing Combat Reporter. It gives a useful overview of most of the things that happened during the turn. It can be found here https://sites.google.com/site/witpaecombatreporter/

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: tolsdorff
What helped me the most at that time to get started was Sardaukar's excellent tutorial , which can be found here : https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2564541
I found it via this forum topic: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2576157.

Thanks, I agree - I recall that one helping a lot of folks.

[btd64]

ORIGINAL: ggeilman

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

If a person considered the Coral Sea scenario a tutorial and the Guadalcanal scenario a second tutorial scenario then that person would not be too wrong.

I did Coral Sea before I started the campaign. As it is April of 42 maybe I should do Guadalcanal. I just don't want to mess up my current game.

You can start a new scenario, just use a different save slot and go back to your previous game later....GP

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

In a lot of ways, Uncommon Valor was the real tutorial for WITP, then the smaller WITP scenarios and eventually you stepped up to the full campaign.

This was the way of it for many of us.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: btd64

ORIGINAL: ggeilman

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

If a person considered the Coral Sea scenario a tutorial and the Guadalcanal scenario a second tutorial scenario then that person would not be too wrong.

I did Coral Sea before I started the campaign. As it is April of 42 maybe I should do Guadalcanal. I just don't want to mess up my current game.

You can start a new scenario, just use a different save slot and go back to your previous game later....GP

Or make a new folder, name it how you want to name it, then copy the saves that you want from the Save folder and paste those saves into the new folder. You can then delete or overwrite the campaign saves since you still have them elsewhere.

[ggeilman]

Think I will make a backup folder of all my saves just in case and then use a new save file. That way if I mess it up!

[Tanaka]

Found this for newbies as well:

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2576157

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: Tanaka

Found this for newbies as well:

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2576157

That is one thread that I usually refer new players to.

[hpalmer]

Very interesting thread. As a "young guy" (US Army vet, 35, with kid 3 due this week) I own the game, but have struggled with all the ins and outs of installation and tackling the game. I've read almost every AAR on the forum and find it deeply enjoyable to read about others exploits. The game is intimidating for both basic technical reasons as well as the sheer complexity, but that complexity also is the appeal of why I have gravitated this direction from Hearts of Iron which feels so flat in comparison. I own many Matrix titles and found WITE1 & 2 very accessible and will add that I purchased the hard copy WITE2 manual and read it cover to cover, so I don't mind digging into manuals to learn what's under the hood. I found WITW to be less accessible than the WITE titles, and now WITP:AE, which has the best AARs and a great community, still feels very inaccessible to actually get to grips with.

I'd love a remaster to incorporate more of the mod updates I read about on the forum or map changes and help me figure out why my installs dont seem to work right. I have a high end Alienware gaming laptop and this game is VERY laggy for me, I've assumed I am doing something wrong or need to patch the game manually perhaps, but candidly find it easier with my limited free time to enjoy others exploits than wrestle with solving the issues I'm experiencing. Great to see Matrix engage on a great title. I have posted a little on WITE2 that I'd love to see more of the WITP:AE air system in that game with WITE2's ground combat, the ground combat in WITP seems the hardest to understand and manage from an outsiders perspective. Thanks guys, love lurking and reading other's wisdom. Just wanted to give my .02 cents as a relative outsider looking in who has owned the game for years now without learning it.