OpenRa Tutorial

Discussion about the game and its default mods.
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raymundo
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OpenRa Tutorial

Post by raymundo »

The idea of creating tutorials for the games has been mentioned a couple of times. I would be willing to cover topics on red alert. This post is for people to discuss how to implement them and offer suggestions on topics to cover.

SoScared mentioned he could help with the design/editing of the videos, my question is where would host the videos, youtube? In game? Provide links in game to outside? Obviously putting anything in game, is a decision for the devs.

I am willing to record these videos, but to make the greatest tutotials it would need collaboration and discussion from others.

Because I can only faithfully discuss Red alert it would be great if others were willing to have topics on the other mods. Things like controlling/hotkeys could apply to all mods however.

In these tutorials I plan to introduce topics and give as many viewpoints as possible, obviously one person will not know all of the best tactics, etc. While these are being put together it would be great if other players could chime in with things that should have been covered/alternate advice.

Current ideas for tutorial:

-Controlling/ Hotkeys
-Build orders
-Faction specials
-Composing an army
-early game tactics
-late game/ using super weapons
-Playing as a team


Cheers.

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JOo
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Post by JOo »

you could also revamp our "New Players Guide" cause we have all our Documentation on Github .... most of it is from "2012" written by NukemBro ... and i had to do some changes on the "Expansion"-section when we introduced the Build Radius ... other then that , nobody really further polished or improved it ...

https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/T ... -to-OpenRA
Last edited by JOo on Sun Jan 10, 2016 3:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

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raymundo
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Post by raymundo »

Looks like a good place to start, especially the shock trooper description, lol.

Would you agree each unit could use more explanation? No mention there of rocketeer's ability to shoot down air units, how they are useless against rifleman, or there strength against buildings.

Also wouldn't this be a good thing to be accesible in the extras menu? At least a link?

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JOo
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Post by JOo »

of course please do ... nukem didnt really get deeper into the units ... so that is really needed
most of it is really old and out of date ...

yeah a link in "Extras" would be nice probably , should talk with the mainheads though

we even had the idea of a InGame Encyclopedia .. https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/3788

theres a bounty on it ... so you could basicly get 30$ for doing it ^^
Last edited by JOo on Sun Jan 10, 2016 9:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

noobmapmaker
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Post by noobmapmaker »

Once the videos are made we could do them in several languages, same goes for the written guide.
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Murto the Ray
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Post by Murto the Ray »

raymundo wrote: Current ideas for tutorial:

-Controlling/ Hotkeys
-Build orders
-Faction specials
-Composing an army
-early game tactics
-late game/ using super weapons
-Playing as a team
My suggestions for additional tutorials are:

-Dealling with cheese
-Using superpowers(Chronos/ICs)
-Harvester Micro(i.e. moving them to new fields and minimising distance travelled when mining)
-Scouting
-Analysing replays
-1v1 strategies, 2v2 strategies, 3v3+ strategies(probably included as playing as a team but that may be covering the organisational side of it)
-Making counter strategies/reacting to the enemy's build order
-Map-specific strategies
-Expanding
-maybe an example of a good player's game and explaining why the things they are doing are good?

Some of my suggestions above may already be included in your current ideas but if not then there they are. If you need any help getting things done i can chip in.

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anjew
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Post by anjew »

Worth noting AoA has already done 2 videos based on 1v1 strategy in TD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-etylY ... e=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5-4z3LbkaM
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PersianImmortal
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Post by PersianImmortal »

I'll probably write down a few strats later this week for allies in RA will include the build order, how to execute it, weaknesses etc.

I'd also add in any guide that we do come up with that hotkeys are beyond important. Everyone should learn them no matter what.
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dzine
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Post by dzine »

@ray
Good quality audio is essential for videos


Iffy sound can ruin a pixel perfect video and make it unwatchable or unenjoyable to watch. A realy good quality microphone is essential, maintaining mouth to mic distance is key and using a pop filter helps too. Many cameras have built in microphones but video makers just use this sound to 'sync the audio'

Audacity is freeware. It has all sorts of audio filters, low pass , high pass etc Learning to work with wav files is essential
http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/



Audacity for commentaries, speed tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vXmbQb8HXo

Mic for video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-PnIhRSMsw


* i can help out with test games....play the co operative opponent , ie demo flamer attacks etc





Command & Conquer: Red Alert 1 Online - Tutorial Basic Hotkeys - CnCNet example,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNxJhL8 ... VdSEb7P3Zx

ai voice is good, for ai, lol, but cant beat a decent human for voice commentary, the music didnt realy aid listener comprehension...had too switch off after 4 minutes

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anjew
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Post by anjew »

JOo wrote: we even had the idea of a InGame Encyclopedia .. https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/3788

theres a bounty on it ... so you could basicly get 30$ for doing it ^^
I'd be willing to do an InGame Encyclopedia but that issue would include implementing it into the game. And the scope of that issue seemed to involved using the in-game data to put the stats up. I don't have any coding skills for OpenRA and as balance is always changing an encyclopedia that doesnt draw on the ingame stats would become obsolete quite quickly. so it doesnt seem like just writing up pertinent information.
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eddie
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Post by eddie »

I always hoped tutorials would be implemented to the game as tutorial missions. As OpenRA develops those videos will be outdated sooner or later. Please consider coding tutorial missions.

klaas
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Post by klaas »

I agree with Eddie, tutorial campaign missions are a much better idea than videos IMHO.

In addition to this, usually when I play a new game (almost never, I admit) I first try it, and only if I like it, I'll at some point start looking for videos online. Probably I'd be past the phase for looking at tutorials by then. IMHO the only way a tutorial is going to reach its target audience is in the game menu, when the game is started.

Also, some tutorial missions could be fun. For instance, a mission where you have to destroy target X with Yaks and MiGs (say a command center), with sub missions like *take down the power to remove air defences, *destroy base to remove threat of attack, *protect base from bunch of units. In this way you'll learn: how to reload planes, strengths and weaknesses of Yaks and MiGs, taking out powerplants etc.

noobmapmaker
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Post by noobmapmaker »

klaas wrote: I agree with Eddie, tutorial campaign missions are a much better idea than videos IMHO.
Or instructional video + mission. They can both link to eachother: at the start of the mission a text refers to the instructionalvideo and at the end of the video the viewer is encouraged to try out the newly learned information in Mission X and Y which are designed to apply the taught principles.
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SoScared
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Post by SoScared »

I think there's a need for even more basic and broader concepts here (for starters). Often a tutorial video series is the way to get new players to try the game and if we are to take noobmapmaker's message of marketing to heart, the video series should reflect that.

A few thoughts:

The lobby - Multiplayer lobby and game lobby: Joining a server as a player and as admin. Encouraging play with strangers. Maps. The map resource site. Teaming up. The options. These are not trivial concepts. New players join the lobby all the time and slow everything down because they're not sure how to engage the lobby. This way they get hassled a lot by other players. There's a lot of video material here.

Battle control initialized - Starting position and basic economy: Locating your first ore patch and securing the first good ore refinery position. This is a big one and if newcomers can get this in order then they will be set to learn a lot faster and experiment with far greater number of concepts during a match. At first this sounds like a 1 minute long video, but going into details on how and then demonstrate the benefits of a decent start, will help the newcomer tremendously.

noobmapmaker
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Post by noobmapmaker »

1 instructional video on how to download the client and how to do the most used feautures (skirmish, map editor, maultiplayer) may be a good idea too.

And I think the tutorials should intially be directed at true noobs and start with the very basics. Like the list in the OP.
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