Evo "How - to" videos

[Forboding Angel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZTUNJxB ... mMPswhnn1s

Maek comment! Maek suggest!

First video might be useful for general "hao duz I spring?" questions.

[Google_Frog]

Off topic?

[Forboding Angel]

Couldn't figure out which forum was proper.

[PicassoCT]

Well done, boomarked the links- gonna kick every noobster in the shins with it from here on ..


You could spice up the explanations, with anecdots also casually mention that you play other games (SC2) and why you made and came back to your Spring Game.


All else aside awesome in a box!

[Forboding Angel]

Added another video covering the single player tab:
http://youtu.be/z5klHeZ3sfk

I made another video on how to use the orders menu in evo (a la spring), but I'm not convinced that it is that great. If you can be bothered to watch it... pointers?

http://www.twitch.tv/evolutionrts/c/3297618

I haven't put it on youtube yet because I'm pretty sure it sucks.

[knorke]

Over an hour of videos so I only watched parts...
Think the videos are too long for potential new players, who will want to watch such long videos about "installing & using lobby" or a 45min video tutorial? The first one should be obvious (no other game really needs a video tutorial about how to install it and join a game) and so long gameplay tutorial about just the basics contradicts "designed to be friendly to newcomers."

random notes:
1) I noticed on download page there are these two buttons:


Both have the same text and an icon that means nothing to average gamer.

2) 11:10 suddendly LOUD BIM-BOING of lobby is too loud!

3) "Now I will use this textcommand to change the map" [...] "Now I will type this command to make it start." 99% of audience lost in first two minutes.
There is a start-button, why not click that?
How would a newbie know the name of a map to type? Or know which maps are good for 1v1 or ffa etc.

4) 8 minutes into video that is supposed to be about "showing how to actually play" and there is part about how to customize widgets with tweak mode...

5) I fear the video even if watched completly would not help newbs so much. There are still many many problems like "How do I change from spectator to player" (asked all the time with weblobby) "why does this [random AI] not work", "How do I know names of maps to use with !map command" etc. Some are lobby, others are spring or mod but for player that is just "the game."

6) "Exit & resign, this button basically means you give up"- if the button needs to be explained why does it not have a tooltip that does that. Or a better name.
Generally much stuff you talk about should either be a) obvious from GUI design or b) be explained in a tooltip.

[gajop]

Think the videos are too long for potential new players, who will want to watch such long videos about "installing & using lobby" or a 45min video tutorial?

This is when I stopped watching. Promo videos or fast promo games serve as a much better commercial, do those instead of long instruction videos.

[Forboding Angel]

Gajop and knorke, it has been heavily requested that I make these. Newbies really like them for some reason. Probably for the same reason they are content to watch idiots on youtube building houses in minecraft.

So please understand that these are aimed directly at the people who want them. I understand why they aren't interesting to you. They aren't aimed at you, and that's ok. I wouldn't want to watch them either, but to these people, for some reason spending an hour watching stupid crap on youtube is more desirable than spending 5 minutes on the evo wiki.

These aren't commercials. Commercials should never be more than 3 minutes long. These aren't for advertising, they are strictly for instruction, so please try to keep that in mind while viewing them.

That said, thanks for the feedback.

@knorke's points...

#1 Yeah well, spring has never been anything if not confusing.

#2 It was playing at full volume, whereas if I go ingame I usually turn it down to 10% or so. The music playing is at 30%.

#3 That's why I mentioned using "!help" and even demonstrated it. I also demonstrated what happened when you click the start button. If you don't like how the start button works, I suggest you take it up with Carrepairer or Ikinz (although I've already had that conversation 6+ months ago).

#4 Being able to adjust the gui to a setup that you like is a big deal. Coming from your perspective, I get it, but it's very different from a 100% player perspective.

#5 I demonstrated this, and explained it. If you watched the video it's pretty clear (I'm aware that you were skimming, and that's fine).

#6 Because afaik, resign is the engine terminology. Sure, I could change the text, and then the engine would report in the chat "Player X has resigned and is now spectating!".

"I just clicked 'Quit playing and watch'! Wtf is resign?"


I wish you would focus on things that can actually be changed. Feel free to go on about how idiotic the autohost system is, and how stupid it is that we have to use chat commands in order to control the autohosts, or perhaps any of the other thousands of idiocies that we all put up with on a daily basis.

Why are you always so negative?

[knorke]

Gajop and knorke, it has been heavily requested that I make these.

I think when someone says "can you make a video how to do it?" he actually means "can you make it easier to do?"
At least that is how it should be understood.

#1 Yeah well, spring has never been anything if not confusing.

On the other hand if someone said excactly that, you used your installer to show the opposite. Posts like http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph ... ra#p541008

I wish you would focus on things that can actually be changed.

There is so many things and you actually mention some in video, just you do not seem to realize them as bad things.
-options menu "There is some developer specifique stuff in here as well" - why?
-make resourcebar show something sensible instead of of 0/1000000000 before game start
-use stable game version, not one with wrong tooltips (supply bar) and missing icons (capture, restore)
-make GUI that does not require tweaking.
"I want to resize and drag around all GUI elements the first time I play" said no player, ever. Make good default setup then there is not need to tweak like that.
-Also the most important question: After new player has inevitable messed up his GUI, how to restore default settings?
-Disable the yellow snap-to-mexspot line thing when selecting startposition. It makes it look like the yellow mex circles are startlocation and your startpos would be snapped to them.
-Disable the order menu when selecting startposition. It has no function in this stage.

[Forboding Angel]

My installer does make it easy, and the download page tells you exactly what you're getting into.

Options menu, wtf are you talking about? Edit: Finally figured out what you were talking about... I was referring to the toolbox, where you can spawn cegs and stuff. Does not hurt for that to be there.

Resbar, ok fair point, easy enough to change. Edit: Nevermind, no it isn't, that is an engine thing. You don't like it, bitch at the spring devs.

It is a stable game version, talk to whoever makes the chili widgets for zk to fix their shit.

It does not require tweaking, but a lot of people like the fact that they can make it look like games they are used to.

Dunno, delete the config files spring writes. Maybe you should talk to aforementioned zk chili dev about it.

It is there because the resource map is shown on first run, which is inherently useful. Talk to aforementioned zk chili dev about it.

Orders menu, talk to aforementioned zk chili dev about it.

Gajop and knorke, it has been heavily requested that I make these.

I think when someone says "can you make a video how to do it?" he actually means "can you make it easier to do?"
At least that is how it should be understood.

No. Some people simply do not understand how RTS games work and how they should be busy doing things all the time.

[CarRepairer]

"Now I will use this textcommand to change the map"

Weblobby has a button to select maps from the server with a dropdown.

If you don't like how the start button works, I suggest you take it up with Carrepairer or Ikinz (although I've already had that conversation 6+ months ago).

There's still no way to detect if the host is a Springie or a human. The moment there is, I would make the start button know to say !start. SPADS detection is possible.

[knorke]

There's still no way to detect if the host is a Springie or a human. The moment there is, I would make the start button know to say !start. SPADS detection is possible.

Why is it so hard to detect springie vs human, can botflag of springie not be used? If host has botflag then it is an autohost?
Or just make it always say !start (pro)