Spiral Knights - Critique on the tutorial levels of the game.

Critique on the tutorial levels of the game.

4 replies [Last post]

Fri, 02/08/2013 - 17:53

Fehzor

So I went onto the forums, and I found this lets play of the first few missions in Spiral Knights.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Sikkswedish?feature=mhee

So I just now got to see what the first few missions actually look like in Spiral Knights. This is because when those first few missions came out, I had already made my knight, and was thinking something along the lines of "Ah, they've done a fine job, I'm sure of it" because to be honest, I wasn't that excited about starting a new knight just to see insignificant plot details.

But then I watched this, and I sat back, aghast at what I was seeing. Lets go over it, now shall we?

First, we have the "knight creation interface" that allows more options etc. than were given to all of the older players, including the incredibly desirable flak jacket. But thats a different story, and I'm not going to go into that. All in all, this creation interface was nice and sophistocated and wasn't bad at all. Then there was a loading time, which is reasonable, followed by the introduction to the controls, which can be found here-> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0a8An-ryPc&feature=player_detailpage#t=112s

Let me re-iterate what every guide-for-noobs on Spiral Knights says... Let me quote Magnus-

The default control scheme uses the mouse to move and attack, and X to block. Not everyone has the sense to change these, even though they limit your ability to move and aim to the pointer, and forces you to use the Strafe button when it could all be done much more easily.

Advanced is the control scheme to use, and is as follows:
WASD as Move North/West/South/East (Not to be confused with Move Fwd/Left/Back/Right.)
Action as Left Mouse
Defend as Right Mouse
Prev Weapon as Wheel Up
Next Weapon as Wheel Down
Auto Target as Left Shift
Auto Target is unchecked (Found at the bottom of the Controls Tab.)

And now let me quote Doc, to re-iterate-

Control Scheme
Controls for this game come at a default Arrow Keys to move, Z and X to Attack and Shield, and Space Bar to switch weapons. Please dispose of these controls entirely, as using these controls can seriously make you drag your team down unless you are confident in your skill to use them, and have the skill to prove it. I have seen instances in which this was true, so I won't sit here and deny it.
Otherwise, get yourself a Mouse (they are extremely cheap) and make these your controls:
[WASD] to move.
[Mouse] to aim.
[Left Click/Right Click] to Attack and Shield, or vice versa.
[Mouse Wheel] to switch weapons.

The wiki does not mention this, nor does anything at the start of the game say- "By the way, the control scheme that we've given you is awful. Change it." In fact, it makes this control scheme out to be "standard", as if people really shield with 'x' and move with the left mouse button. Rather, the game should making it clear that to play the game well, you're going to need a mouse. Or better yet, ask the player which control scheme they would like during that beautiful create-your-knight screen- Ask them what type of computer they are on, and explain to them what they're doing and why in as few words as possible, and recommend that they get a mouse. Don't pretend like the control scheme that you're giving them is legitimate.

So then he gets to the rescue camp, and this was the part that kind of got me- the staggering amount of text at the start of the game, explaining that you're a tech-knight on a mechanical planet and that you're killing monsters and gates. Notice that he starts skipping over the text-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0a8An-ryPc&feature=player_detailpage#t=479s

And doesn't know what he is supposed to do for a minute- and doesn't even end up using the arsenal station. I admire that you guys actually decided to introduce the players to bombing, as opposed to objectively handing them only a gun and a sword while hiding the proto bomb and seeing if the knight would find it... that was kind of you.

Then there was the whole "This is how you charge a weapon thing." and I want you to notice what he says as he skips the text- "Yeah, I know what a charge attack is." This was somewhat well done, although entirely unnecessary. In most older games, which I'm sure you admire to some extent, there is a sort of natural learning that goes on. Like Egoraptor would tell you in Sequelitis : Mega Man Classic vs. Mega Man X. And yes, egoraptor curses a lot. If you don't like that, don't click on it.. But the point is, don't use so much text in these things, you don't need to tell people, and they don't want to have to sit down and read it. They want to play it.

The story is good, but needs to also be told better. They shouldn't have to say "Oh my! There was a gate!" in three paragraphs like they're discovering it for the first time and then writing a lab report on it. They should react, maybe say something, but not pause the game to talk about the gate. Notice that Swe skips over that bit too.

I'll finish this post later, am going out for a bit. Maybe.

Fri, 02/08/2013 - 18:04

Canine-Vladmir

@Fez

You write alot. Actually, im not so keen on changing the control scheme. Sure its uber complicated when first starting off but the control scheme and controller supports appeal to many gamers. (anybody can play like they want) And when i first started off i used Z,X,<,^,>,v . Which so happenly, is perfect when you have lag.

for the rest, I didnt bother reading so my opinions are neutral. of course, i might read it later.

Fri, 02/08/2013 - 18:25

Hexzyle

@Canine-Vladmir

Watching Swe use the shield around and before the Battlepod in The Ancient Generator was painful. He could not move with his WASD while shielding (if you noticed, he was switching between the two movement controls frequently) and he found juggling the movement, shielding and attacking simultaneously difficult.

This could be solved if Defend was also bound to one of the mouse buttons (In addition to X)

Fri, 02/08/2013 - 18:32

Luguiru

The default controls are bad? They work fine for me. Left handed with the mouse. Maybe default is supposed to be used with your left hand on the mouse. I can imagine myself trying to use defaults with my mouse on the right, my left middle finger would be twitching between S and X to move backward or shield. Even though the default left click is to move the last time I used it was about a month after starting when I realized WASD is significantly more comfortable for my use while my right thumb does X and sometimes Z instead of right clicking to attack because I have no idea. Maybe I just have weird hands and the only reason it works for me is because I was kidnapped in my sleep and a generic crazy German doctor switched my hands and feet. I would give kickboxing a whole new meaning.

Spiral Knights is not the only game to be taking the "textplanation" route in teaching its players. There are still some games that can balance tutorials for their content without lecturing the player with uninteresting dialogues, but usually those games succeed by skipping the part where you sit down and read ten sentences and either show it visually or tell the player something happens when they do whatever the situation calls for. Megaman is a great example of that second one which taught people how to play the game without having a boring dialogue.

This is also a convenient situation to mention Wakfu which has an optional tutorial area that explains the very basics (how to move around in the world, how to talk to NPCs, how to start a battle, how to move during battle, how to use attacks during battle, and how to use the "rest" action which restores health faster while outside battle than standing up and waiting) which brings you to a small starting area where you can choose to learn one of the basic professions, fight simple enemies to practice and level up a little, figure out puzzles in the area which give you rewards for figuring it out when there was no prior explanation from the game whatsoever, and an area that teaches you a couple tricks during combat like bonus damage for attacking an enemy from their sides or back and the elemental damage system. All of these tutorials basically put the player in an area with something and let them figure it out after giving a concise explanation or give up and leave, but they can come back any time if they want. Regardless if the player chooses to do any of these tutorials or get any of the rewards which the tutorials give you, whether they already know everything or want to skip it, they can go into the main world and they have to figure out what to do from there on their own.

To be fair, Spiral Knights succeeds at having the little controls that come up immediately after you create your knight and fall out of your escape pod, but beyond that they could have just added how to do charge attacks in there and be done with it. Maybe have a bomb related puzzle where you needed to attack multiple switches in an area of effect at the same time where the current "bomb tutorial" is, but that would probably lead players to believe bombs are needed for puzzles which are otherwise impossible to complete. Which should exist with bonus loot but not as a puzzle required to complete the floor.

Sat, 02/09/2013 - 13:01

Klipik

The controls are fine.

The only thing I've changed are swapping the left/right mouse buttons to attack/move instead of move/attack. I have played for almost two years now, and I have never had problems with using WASD and X at the same time, except with ghosting keyboards. Space to change weapons is also fine. My control setup looks like this:

http://i.imgur.com/d1qX4ik.jpg

Maybe this is just my hands, but switching index finger between x and d works fine, along with thumb for space. If I have to move right and shield, I switch my middle finger to x. And I've never been in a situation where the only option was to strafe diagonally upwards and right while shielding and facing the opposite direction.

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Critique on the tutorial levels of the game.