Spring RTS Engine

I made A tutorial video.
It's pretty raw and covers the basics and is meant for newbies that want to quickly get to know all the Commands, special movements,shortcuts,attack types etc etc...

This is for SA but will also fit almost any TA mod.
I hope that next time some newbie asks some questions about some ta mod in spring he would be able to get a link to this video and catch up much faster than just asking and finding these things by himself, a process that usually takes several months.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kiIXDT_82E


I hope to be making a few more videos explaining basic strategy and maybe even a tutorial about how to install everything a newbies needs,including some explanations about how the entire spring "system" works(mods?maps?lobbies?widgets?)...

The video is raw, I know, and it would be great if someone who knows video/sound editing would edit it and polish it up.
If there are such gentlemen plz contact me in pm or in the lobby.

good idea!
well done in general. you are zoomed in enough for stuff to be visible at crappy youtube resolution (except the details of the different cursors, but that is ok). you are also not moving to fast in both script and on the map, there is not too much repetition, your sound quality, volume and voice acting is good too. i only have some minor critics about the script:

• if you have to use cheats during the tutorial, explain this at the start; "during this tutorial, i will use cheat-commands to speed up some things which in real game will take much longer, please do not get confused" or something like that.
  alternatively, just explain something while its building normally.
• mention energy use on cloak. though, it is maybe even better to not mention cloaking at all, as you did not mention radar and LOS yet.
• build and explain mex and wind/solar before a lab. this may also be a good time to explain usage of Shift for queuing commands already.

Its pretty good.

Instead of cheating its probably best to use cut - skip to later stage etc.

Also it could be useful to split tutorial into several short thematic parts. For example feature/own unit reclaiming is probably "advanced economy" topic.

Cheats can be cut out.
It is hard to decide what should be mentioned since a lot of things can be categorized differently and are interconnected.
It was not really made to completely explain every small detail.
A lot of things newbies find out very easily on their own.
My desire was to allow them to immediately be aware of what is tactically possible so they can become more efficient,quicker.

The video was about commands,shortctus and a very basic introduction.
Those were the three main guidelines.

I thought that shift is something that is primarily connected to giving orders not economy so i explained it as i was explaining movement and attack.

Thx for the criticism.
I think part of the confusion lies in the fact i didn't state the subject of the video(as was suggested by Kowodo),something i will try and edit in the beginning.

Just watched the first video, its not bad but you can do better.
You choose to explain things "in real time" while frapsing what you do in spring. That causes the problem that you have no time to think what/how to show. As the videos will be watched by new players, they must also be somewhat action filled.
Here there is the problem that during the first 3 minutes or so basically nothing happens.

Show, don't tell.
Do not just say "this attack kills everything in the game" and then shot the ground. Show the commander dgunning some units!

Do not just say "if the commander dies, you have lost." Show the commander getting overpowered by enemy units and then explode!

If you start explaining something, finish that topic and dont skip it halfway through.
Like you talk very detailed about ressources and how the UI displays them but then you do not show how ressources are actually generated. Make some windmills and mex!

Same with the camera modes. If you switch through them at least leave it in fps mode for a few seconds with a flat view so that the difference is really visible. Otherwise it does not give much information and newbs only need the default mode anyway.

Maybe have subtitles to repeat important things like what mousebutton to use.

Ok, alot of critic but I wouldnt bother to type that if it was hopeless
For basic video editing you can use Windows Movie Maker. Its not very advanced but can do all the stuff you need: cutting, putting in a music or speech audio track, fastforward, subtitles etc.

knorke wrote:Just watched the first video, its not bad but you can do better.
You choose to explain things "in real time" while frapsing what you do in spring. That causes the problem that you have no time to think what/how to show. As the videos will be watched by new players, they must also be somewhat action filled.
Here there is the problem that during the first 3 minutes or so basically nothing happens.

Show, don't tell.
Do not just say "this attack kills everything in the game" and then shot the ground. Show the commander dgunning some units!

Do not just say "if the commander dies, you have lost." Show the commander getting overpowered by enemy units and then explode!

If you start explaining something, finish that topic and dont skip it halfway through.
Like you talk very detailed about ressources and how the UI displays them but then you do not show how ressources are actually generated. Make some windmills and mex!

Same with the camera modes. If you switch through them at least leave it in fps mode for a few seconds with a flat view so that the difference is really visible. Otherwise it does not give much information and newbs only need the default mode anyway.

Maybe have subtitles to repeat important things like what mousebutton to use.

Ok, alot of critic but I wouldnt bother to type that if it was hopeless
For basic video editing you can use Windows Movie Maker. Its not very advanced but can do all the stuff you need: cutting, putting in a music or speech audio track, fastforward, subtitles etc.

thx.I have already decided to redo it.
Did you use windows movie maker for your video?

yes, movie maker 2. it comes with windows xp. appereantly with win 7 there is a newer one as a seperate free download.
the highlighting boxes and arrows are done with irfanview (paint works too) though:
i took a frame, painted the arrows etc on it, then inserted it as an image in the timeline.

I like the video very much, it was quite well executed.

The content is good but I don't know if video is the best format, since you're not really showing anything that complex - text and pics could get the point across just as fine, and then it's more easy to scroll over points that you already know/are not interested in. (watched only part 1 so far though)

Or, make it more visually interesting as Knorke said.

Well it's my opinion that videos for tutorials are the best format.
what i might do is add a colored line at the bottom of the video.
Each color will symbolize a different topic and since these videos will hopefully eventually be located and embedded in a website a map of colors will be easy to add.

Video's are the best format for this because it shows how the interface reacts to the player. Also, zoom in like 50% more when you can. Make things really big, because youtube quality is crap :).