Showcasing spring to new users (feedback)

[Zpock]

Haha it's funny that the fact you are supposed to click "spring lobby" and not "spring.exe" is such a n00b killer. Pure comedy if that is accountable to 50% of players not figuring out how to play...

If only there was a retard-safe-version to install for new people that installed and started up like all commercial games.

[KDR_11k]

It's not going to stop someone who's planning to explore more but it'll make a really bad first impression. Usually the other exes in the game dir are helper programs that get called by the game exe later on, not the programs you're actually supposed to use.

It may not be a major problem but it is counter-intuitive and thus should be removed.

[Warlord Zsinj]

Or even give spring.exe the 'Spring file' icon, instead of the 'wee I'm a big spring icon click me!' icon. A bit of text in the main screen of Spring.exe could help too - "please run spring lobby to find multiplayer games"

[KDR_11k]

I think it'd work better to move spring.exe into a bin subfolder or call it "engine.exe" or something.

[Warlord Zsinj]

That's a good idea. Renaming 'TASClient' to 'Spring Multiplayer' or even 'Play online now!' (both common names commercial games have used in the past) would work well too.

[KDR_11k]

Then people will look for "Spring Singleplayer"...

[Warlord Zsinj]

Fair enough, though I think some sort of rename from 'TASClient' is necessary. The desktop icon reads 'Spring Battleroom', I see no reason why the exe in the spring dir shouldn't be the same.

[Zpock]

The "TASclient.exe" should be renamed simply "Spring.exe" and that should be renamed engine or something and moved to a subfolder yes. Every single other game follows this convention... if it's named anything else, no matter how logical it will be the same as now.

[FLOZi]

Fair enough, though I think some sort of rename from 'TASClient' is necessary. The desktop icon reads 'Spring Battleroom', I see no reason why the exe in the spring dir shouldn't be the same.

I hate to go all AF, but TASClient is not the only Spring lobby/battleroom client available.

[Warlord Zsinj]

What is the distribution of the other lobbies among the Spring populace?

[AF]

Fair enough, though I think some sort of rename from 'TASClient' is necessary. The desktop icon reads 'Spring Battleroom', I see no reason why the exe in the spring dir shouldn't be the same.

If this goes ahead I will personally write code to delete all copies of tasclient found with the file name spring.exe into all my projects. I will then come round your house murder your family and gauge your eyes out your head so you can watch me gutting you from the inside out.

I would support changing spring.exe to engine.exe, but tasclient already calls itself 'spring lobby' and only makes a single 'tasclient' reference at all in the window title, it is highly misleading and we should not encourage this.

Moving the engine executable and dlls to a bin subfolder would also be a good idea and would help unclutter the main spring directory too.

[KDR_11k]

If this goes ahead I will personally write code to delete all copies of tasclient found with the file name spring.exe into all my projects.

Good thing nobody uses your projects .

[LordMatt]

lol

[tombom]

If this goes ahead I will personally write code to delete all copies of tasclient found with the file name spring.exe into all my projects.

Good thing nobody uses your projects .

this a hundred times this

I still think the biggest problem with Spring is just the difficulty of getting started and then actually learning how to play. It's not very newbie friendly and most mods have a huge learning curve, with few decent AIs that actually work. Pretty much everybody I know who bothers to look at Spring thinks it's awesome.

[rattle]

Fair enough, though I think some sort of rename from 'TASClient' is necessary. The desktop icon reads 'Spring Battleroom', I see no reason why the exe in the spring dir shouldn't be the same.

I think I (or someone else, can't remember) brought that up a few months ago but no one gave a shit then.

[CarRepairer]

+1

<-- right here, another one of the idiots who ran spring.exe right off the bat because he neglected to read any documentation whatsoever and wanted to see this 3D TA.

Not to mention the fact I spent a while on FileUniverse trying to find maps and mods, after all the website told me to go there.

[kiki]

Actually, i also clicked on spring.exe, and i successfully started single player games. However, i soon realized that if i wanted to move forward in my spring playing, i had to 1. stop playing arm and start playing core, 2. start playing against homo sapiens. Both of these led me to click on tasclient, which seemed perfectly logical to me. Spring and tasclient are perfectly user friendly to me, and they are the same to anyone who has any experience with multi-player gaming, and rts games in general imo. However, there are soo many "noobs" that this is not user friendly enough.

Anyway, i was throwing around some ideas with friends and we talked about making a linux gaming live dvd or something. Basically, it would be a linux package (ubuntu with compiz fusion if there is space in order to get more linux users out there...) that would have tons of gfx card drivers built in, and then put our favorite games on it, specifically spring (with various mods, maps, and a lobbeh), warzone 2100 (i think there is now a build for linux at wz2100.net), bzflag, and some other cube based fps's that i am not familiar with...

Does anyone know if such a live cd (well dvd...) could be created? It would be user friendly by having big fat icons to all necessary stuff all on the desktop...

[Vadi]

There's a whole bunch of threads about this on Ubuntu forums. Look into the Icebuntu one too, it was a newb starting so should have plenty of info.

[kiki]

lol :)


nice avatar....

[Hobo Joe]

Yeah, something definitely needs to be done about the intuitive-ness of the whole setup.

I've directed a lot of people towards Spring, but only a couple of them have stayed. One, who used to be a die-hard TA fan so naturally he was hooked on first sight. The other was very computer-savvy and willing to take the time to figure it all out and get everything working just how it should.

But in all the other cases, something holds them up. Sometimes it's as simple as not knowing how to get started with the Lobby, and confusion about Spring.exe .etc.

The other is a huge learning curve that is largely in part because of horrible documentation. People get started, and they have nothing to aquaint them with the resource system, the units, the build hierarchy and so forth. CA has done some work in this direction, which is very good. While I'm not a fan of the CA gameplay, they definitely have quite a few things going for them, and this is one of the biggest. As it stands now, you basically have to have someone who has been playing for a very long time to personally teach you about the game.

A new user will thing 'reclaim, wtf?' about things that we who have been playing for a very long time just take for granted. I think there should definitely be more in-game tips that explain simple functions/hotkeys. New users won't know diddly-squat about self-destructing(A very useful tactic, at times), or d-gun and so forth.

Like CA has done, in-game tips and tips during the loading screen are a huge help, but with some changes. I don't think you need in-depth data about the history of a unit when you build it. More along the lines of when you build a vehicle plant it will tell you that vehicles are faster than kbots, but less maneuverable. Or that an artillery gun can shoot over hills to bombard an enemy from a secure spot. Certain things like unit balance should be left up to the player. You don't want to give them away tips that say 'this unit is better than this unit for this reason'. It should just be simple data like range/attack style/speed and so forth.

Also, small things like the connect button on the lobby is nothing but a little red icon. I've had new users ask me how to connect when they open the lobby, because, lets be honest, it's not that intuitive. And under the 'host game' drop-down list there should be 'host multiplayer' and 'start singleplayer', or similar, to help new users figure it out.


If Spring is going to grow, some things are definitely going to have to change, because as it is, it's just the few die-hard fans and a couple people they've convinced to join.


Also, if you're interested in getting some new players, here's an excellent place to look. Lots of people go to those forums, and now they just need some more convincing by people who love the game. :)
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/s ... p?t=671007