Re: [glob2-devel] New tutorial so wonderfull!

[Andrew Sayers]

I tested the tutorial earlier this morning - this is a general write-up
of my comments...

The first page of text should be done as campaign text.  However,
campaign text is apparently ignored for custom maps.  This shouldn't be
a problem for the final tutorial, but I would call this a bug in the
game.

While the grammar and overall tone of the tutorial text is excellent,
there are numerous spelling mistakes - rather than list them all here,
I'd rather go through and check the spellings when the map is done.

The game starts with the display window miles away from your units.  If
it's too late to put the globs under the main display window, you should
at least mention this problem in the campaign text.  In a wider sense,
it's a bug in the game that the map editor starts off with the display
window in one place, while the game itself starts with the window
somewhere else.

When the concept of changing the number of workers on a building is
first introduced, the player is simply asked to change the number of
workers.  The second time, there's a detailed explanation of how the
"notches" work.  This explanation should go in earlier.

When the player is asked to produce an explorer, they're only told to
produce one - this is apparently a bug, as they need at least two to
discover the enemy base in time for later on in the game.

When the racetrack is first introduced, it should mention that faster
globs will get hungry quicker.

Speaking of the racetrack, the tutorial should recommend "between 5 and
7" workers be placed on it, since it takes seven resources to complete.

When you start constructing warriors, the text goes away for a bit, and
there's no hint why or whether it'll come back.  It would be better to
add a message like "I'll let you get on with amassing your army for a
bit.  Your colony has changed a lot since you last had a break, so you
might want to take this opportunity to have a look round"?

Later, the tutorial talks specifically about barracks improving attack
strength, which is misleading, as they also improve attack speed.  This
should be changed to say something more woolly like "it makes your
warriors more powerful".

When constructing the race track and swimming pool, the player should be
warned to leave a gap around the edge of the buildings "for reasons that
will become clear later", as it's too early to explain the whole concept
of upgrading at that point.  This issue shouldn't be mentioned when the
player is instructed to upgrade, but should be discussed afterwards.
This gives the player an opportunity to work it out on his own, which is
more satisfying, and more likely to be remembered.

After the upgrading section is over, the text should say something like
"higher level buildings can generally process more globs at once,
process them faster, and train them to a higher level.  For example, a
level 2 inn can hold 7 units at once, and can feed a glob in just over
half the time of a level 1 inn".  This acts as a subtle hint that the
player should think about upgrading their inns - if the game carries on
a while, their 4 inns can get overloaded.

If one explorer died somehow, or the player forgot to create the
second one, the player still might not be able to see the enemy base by
the time they're asked to start using flags.  The text should suggest
the player "try putting a flag in an unexplored area to the north-west
of your base, and move it around until you find your enemy."

There might be some sort of a bug to do with the attack against your
base at the end of the tutorial - I didn't see the messages about
being under attack.  That might be because the text told me to place my
warriors in front of my towers, instead of behind them.

Finally, and I believe this has been fixed now, when my warriors
attacked the enemy base, they all tried to squeeze through one tiny
opening, and got stuck.

        - Andrew