More appeal to new players!

[tskuzzy]

Hey, the dev team is busy with fiddling around with game balance and new features, but perhaps we should take a deep breath, step back a a moment, and try to make Trem a little more appealing to new players. By new players, I mean people who've been to the Trem website, saw some sexy screenies, decided to give Trem a go, and was immediately disappointed by the fugly HUD beginning screen.

Here are some proposed stuff to include as the default Trem installation

• Better default HUD - make it look real nice and appealing
• Let them choose their IGN on the default screen
• After clicking "Play", make it so that it automatically fetches from the master server list and sort by # of players descending
• Turn auto-download on by default (for maps anyways) - perhaps give the player an option to download the current map or disconnect
• Better Settings menu (more functionality) - I highly doubt newbies can navigate their way through their console easily immediately after they start playing
• Built-in Help - include a little FAQ to help newbies learn how to buy weapons and such
• Include some default binds for evolving/buying weapons (and as a part of the menus, tell them the shortcuts)
• Create some "official" servers managed and sponsored by the dev team (sticky these at the top of the online list) - perhaps create a newbie training server similar to Wrath's server

[mooseberry]

Hey, the dev team is busy with fiddling around with game balance and new features, but perhaps we should take a deep breath, step back a a moment, and try to make Trem a little more appealing to new players. By new players, I mean people who've been to the Trem website, saw some sexy screenies, decided to give Trem a go, and was immediately disappointed by the fugly HUD beginning screen.

Here are some proposed stuff to include as the default Trem installation

• Better default HUD - make it look real nice and appealing
• Let them choose their IGN on the default screen
• After clicking "Play", make it so that it automatically fetches from the master server list and sort by # of players descending
• Turn auto-download on by default (for maps anyways) - perhaps give the player an option to download the current map or disconnect
• Better Settings menu (more functionality) - I highly doubt newbies can navigate their way through their console easily immediately after they start playing
• Built-in Help - include a little FAQ to help newbies learn how to buy weapons and such
• Include some default binds for evolving/buying weapons (and as a part of the menus, tell them the shortcuts)
• Create some "official" servers managed and sponsored by the dev team (sticky these at the top of the online list) - perhaps create a newbie training server similar to Wrath's server

Better is HUD is already (mostly?) done I think.

See the thread in the developers corner for info on downloads.

[MitSugna]

Another lost soul without patience.

[Jedarus]

Another lost soul without patience.

He's lost all right. But tskuzzy means well, and I agree that Tremulous needs to be more accessible sometimes.

And not all people have such limitless patience as you do.

[tskuzzy]

Another lost soul without patience.

Not sure what you mean by "lost". I know what I'm talking about (for the most part). Even though I agree that I'm not exactly on top of things in terms of how 1.2 has been coming along and which of the features I suggested have already been implemented already.

I am merely pointing out certain aspects of the default controls which may be confusing and/or difficult for complete newbie players.

[*Carson]

Wow Fail!!!!!!!!

[khalsa]

• Better default HUD - make it look real nice and appealing

In Progress

• Let them choose their IGN on the default screen

Doneish

• After clicking "Play", make it so that it automatically fetches from the master server list and sort by # of players descending

Done, default is Sort by Ping.

• Turn auto-download on by default (for maps anyways) - perhaps give the player an option to download the current map or disconnect

Pretty much Done

• Better Settings menu (more functionality) - I highly doubt newbies can navigate their way through their console easily immediately after they start playing

Done (mostly)

• Built-in Help - include a little FAQ to help newbies learn how to buy weapons and such

Done, just need to write more help stuffs

• Include some default binds for evolving/buying weapons (and as a part of the menus, tell them the shortcuts)

Maybe. 1.1.0 includes several "hidden" bind sets from some developers, Might could make them less hidden

• Create some "official" servers managed and sponsored by the dev team (sticky these at the top of the online list)

Done

[/list]

[Kiwi]

• After clicking "Play", make it so that it automatically fetches from the master server list and sort by # of players descending

Done, default is Sort by Ping.

I think it would be best if it sorted by number of players over ping as a default.  Newbies care about seeing players when they first play tremulous, not how far they have to lead their bullets.

• Built-in Help - include a little FAQ to help newbies learn how to buy weapons and such

Done, just need to write more help stuffs

I'm willing to help here.  I have a lot of stuff to do, but if you give me some topics to work on, I can get them done.

• Create some "official" servers managed and sponsored by the dev team (sticky these at the top of the online list)

Done

Eww, I don't like that idea.  You don't want to "sticky" things, unless your sure its the best place for a newbie to start, and I have a feeling it wouldn't be.  Also, how is that done?[/list]

[mooseberry]

• After clicking "Play", make it so that it automatically fetches from the master server list and sort by # of players descending

Done, default is Sort by Ping.

I think it would be best if it sorted by number of players over ping as a default.  Newbies care about seeing players when they first play tremulous, not how far they have to lead their bullets.

No please, sort by ping is better.

[tskuzzy]

No please, sort by ping is better.

Sort by # players + ping/2

[Jedarus]

No please, sort by ping is better.

Sort by # players + ping/2

That would just give some whacked out answer. Better luck next time!

Oh, and I think that sorting by players would just give the X servers even more server population, seeing as they tend to be filled with a substantial number of players all the time. And not just the X servers, other modded servers which incidentally are also popular will benefit. On the other hand, I enjoy playing on servers which don't have that close a ping to home, and by contrast, find those servers which are nearest to me in terms of ping to be quite boring. What if those servers were under-populated? Then a newbie would instinctively join a game with a suitably high number of players, with little regard to how high the ping they get will be.

[Paradox]

Last time we had a human-edited server list, said human editor went crazy and basically blacklisted everything but a few servers *cough*R1ch*cough*.

Sort by ping is fine, dont need to stick servers.

[KamikOzzy]

• Create some "official" servers managed and sponsored by the dev team (sticky these at the top of the online list)

Done

[/list]

Whoa really? I would like to appeal the fuck out of this if it's true.