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User Interface Tutorial

By MYrankAdminHistidine
Learn the basics of the Zero-K GUI.






Players: 1
Singleplayer
Map: Glacies 1.3
Game:Zero-K $VERSION
Created:7 years ago
Changed: 5 years ago (revision 22)
Played: 110 times
Rated: 9 times
Rating: Your vote:
Difficulty: Your vote:

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7 years ago
Rating: 1star
Difficulty: Impossible.


Seriously?
+3 / -0
Most challenging mission of them all:

UI Tutorial.

Joke:
[Spoiler]
+4 / -0
7 years ago
When you attemp to learn but it's hard

\(u_u)/
+1 / -0


7 years ago
It's currently left inaccessible due to a potential Chobby crash that occurs after featuring the mission. We'll need to check the code sometime in the near future.
+1 / -0


7 years ago
The first instructions are confusing as I could not easily find the 'Next' button. The '>' button does nothing. The 'Next' button is not visually part of the UI that contains the tutorial.

The window that tells me about the radar tower is on the wrong side of the screen. The tutorial should not have windows jump around. So far as I have seen three windows and each have been at a different position. The 'Next' button has gone so I am left wondering how to continue.

Why does screen 3/3 want me to click Next? Now 'Next' exists again?

Screen 4/4 is too polite. It should say, click on this unit to select it, ideally with an area. Once the unit is selected it bring up a new screen that tells me far too much about the multiple ways to select units. The task set is too convoluted because I'm not even looking at the unit to be selected and there is too much irrelevant information. You tell me about Shift, boxes, Ctrl, Ctrl + C and then expect me to not use any of them. How do I know what a Lotus is? How do I even know what "near my commander" is? I've never been told about either.

In screen 5/5 do I really need to know about the objectives screen? There will only ever be one objective. Perhaps make an always-on transparent objectives screen with tickboxes (like in every other game).

Screen 6/6 is too polite and useless, similar to 4/4. It shouldn't be joking around with M and Move buttons. Tutorials are inherently uninteresting so should efficiently convey the important information. I would try to cut down the visible text as much as possible. It is wearing to read mult-paragraph tutorial instructions for each of the prompts, especially when most of it isn't instructions at all.

Why is there a Windgen at the destination? This will lead people to guard it instead of moving.

By the way, there are people without an intuition for compass directions.

8/8 is similar to 6/6, but a bit better.

At this point I am allowed to toggle movestate, why?

10/10 AHHHHHHHH things are happening how can I read this three paragraph popup box while stuff is happening on the screen and things are doing things? Is stuff dying? Is it timed? I read the box but by the time I did so I could just see two units and six wrecks.

11/11 talks about Fire At Will and a similar box did earlier. I don't need to know these things. I tried to tell my commander to Attack Move the location but he wouldn't move, something is broken (she reclaims wreck of the thing he killed in 8/8). Then she reclaims the things killed in the attack moving.

12/12 gives me no commands, how will I learn anything?

13/13 gives me no commands. I'll just flail about and click next when nothing seems to happen.

14/14 uses the keyword "grid" to not talk about overdrive. Avoid namespace conflicts, figure out a new name for it. Perhaps blueprint. The parenthesis is too much information in general. The whole screen could be more screens.
  • Select you commander
  • Click economy (highlight)
  • Click Solar (highlight)
  • Click location.
As it stands I have a ghost on the ground and don't know what to do with it without first reading two paragraphs.

How am I going to remember anything in 15/15 without practice and guidance?

16/16 is better written but the goals are confusing. Am I supposed to make multiple mexes? Should I press F4? The text markers are getting a bit cluttered by this point. Where is the ghost?

17/17 we're not in UI tutorial anymore. It's morphed into an economy tutorial.

18/18 needs a ghost. Does facplop need that much explanation? If you want to teach [ and ] perhaps force them to change its facing and block commands given at the wrong facing.

20/20 has far far too much. Assisting the factory should be done after we have a nice repeat queue of Glaives going (idk where the tutorial is going, we might get there). Removing a thing from the queue should be its own thing. I don't need to know that the units tab will be automatically selected, it is both clear and unimportant once I do the action. The objective "build 5 Glaives" can be achieved any number of ways and I don't expect any advanced methods to be used.

21/21 tells me about Shift, Ctrl, Alt and Space + Click all at the same time. These aren't instructions, why would I remember?

22/22 (did we just leave factory-training-zone without repeat? What else is this important?) stuff happened on the screen again but it stopped happening fairly quickly so it's ok. Still too much text.

23/23 why would I have noticed the fog of war? Everything in these four paragraphs is new. What is a complicated direction 'northwest'? What is a scout? What is radar? What are these dots? Why can't I just send my six Warriors?

25/25 How can I practice the controls more when the victory screen appears?

We need a much smaller and less complicated victory screen. Just one of those semitransparent overlays which looks pretty and says "Victory" or something similar. It can have one or two buttons. I don't know if this would be a mission-only thing or generally applied. It could be generally applied if one of the buttons is "awards" and brings up the usual screen, when relevant. Other buttons could be exit and restart.

The '<', '>' and 'number/number' buttons were never important and should be removed. The flag button was never important and should be removed.
+4 / -0


7 years ago
I featured the mission, restarted chobby (mission downloaded) then unfeatured the mission. Running the mission worked for me.
+0 / -0


7 years ago
The chobby crash was to to do with the mission having undefined difficulty. It has a difficulty now so I'll feature it for more feedback. Also, in spite of my feedback, it is a useful mission and at least on-par with the other tutorials. It still needs work though.
+0 / -0

7 years ago
This is.. awful. It tries to teach too many things, and there are so many issues I don't even know where to start.
+0 / -4
You could start by being nice?
(sarcastic)
+2 / -0
Good feedback doesn't have to be "nice" as most people use the term, although civility is beneficial. But it needs to optimize for identifying specific issues and (where available) solutions, rather than for attempting to raise the status of the giver relative to the recipient.

Anyway: Chat dump with AUrankAdminGoogleFrog discussing various changes I intend to follow
+2 / -0


7 years ago
There is too much in this tutorial. Split into basic UI and economy.

Basic UI: http://pastebin.com/Cf6fXpH8
Economy: http://pastebin.com/BkFe0GZV
+0 / -0
USrankaeonios it's very simple. Run the tutorial with a text file open and write down everything which is wrong as you come across it.
+2 / -0
quote:
Run the tutorial with a text file open and write down everything which is wrong as you come across it.
Why?
There is already a post that lists 20+ problems. You already know what is wrong.

No use for others to make the list even longer. If even half of that list is adressed the mission will be so different that most feedback will have become irrelevant. Why do you want to waste players time with that?
Everytime someone had bothered to write feedback on a mission it has been more or less the same key-points anyway.
+0 / -0


7 years ago
quote:
Why?

Because knorke can't follow a conversation and figure out what the point being made is.
+2 / -0


7 years ago
USrankaeonios clearly wanted to post something to get the disdain out of his system. He couldn't either +1 my post or post some neutral agreement. Also, since he didn't interact with my post at all I don't know whether he has additional points.
+0 / -0


7 years ago
Redone as per proposal.
+0 / -0

7 years ago
Nope. Nopity nope.
+0 / -4


7 years ago
Revision 3:

5: This screen is a bit dense. Not sure what to do other than remove. It's nice info though.

7: As with the economy tutorial, consider putting the UI highlight in the game world as well. The cursor of the highlight could trace out the line to make it clearer what is going on. As it is the lines and circles are a bit harder to understand. Idk if this would make it easier but there should be a way to convey this well.

8: Fatal bug, the storage is my ally.

9: The other units are also my ally. Luckily Warrior has AoE.

I think the most improvement is on fixing the fatal bug as well as better use of UI highlight. Highlight the things players should click on, even if on the world. The Attack Move part could have them click the command and click a location, for example.
+0 / -0

7 years ago
quote:
8: Fatal bug, the storage is my ally.


Did not see that issue. Right clicking attacked as expected.

quote:
9: The other units are also my ally. Luckily Warrior has AoE.


Did not see that issue either. However warriors vs bandits and an llt is a dumb demonstration of fight move.

Also the mission didn't demonstrate queueing commands.

The mission also didn't demonstrate the ability of units to attack while on move orders.
+0 / -1
It was heartwrenching when i had to murder Friend Storage.

I didn't notice any UI highlights. Perhaps i did something wrong or should have opted back to defaults. But that is annoying to put the UI back together each time.

(i guess i could make my UI a preset?)
+1 / -0
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