Preperation for PvP and Motivation

First: Its somtimes realy difficult and demotivating to learn a game while getting smahed by better oponents all time. I think a good Preparation for new Players is needed beside the Tutorial. As you can see i really like Starcraft. In the new addon of there is an interesting concept wich i like. In the PvP Section, u first have a Training Mode with 3 Stages, that runs on the Normal multiplayer game Mode vs an AI, but it will give you objektives to learn the "basic build order". Next you have an Normal vs AI mode, the AI however will be more or less difficult depending on how you perform. Afterwards there is Unranked and Ranked Matchmaking. Here is a Video about it. I wish there will be somthing similar in PA
video about training http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQYDvMB9f2k

Second: Will there be an Ladder system for better competitive play? A good Ladder system for ranked play, can be very Motivating! However, there should be still an unranked Matchmaking and Custom Games.
Also possible would be an Level System(I dont realy like level Systems tho), which are also motivating for people playing just for fun.
Does Anyone know wheather one of theese things will be in PA? Its not in the Suggestion page.
Modding of course will play a huge role in long term motivation, if there would be an editor a la Starcraft II or Warcraft III where u can nearly make everything with the engine, it will ad a HUGE amount of content to PA(as long the Community is making Mods).

Problem is that meta game changes over time, the idea that Uber has to keep up with the changes(essentially pre-empting them as well) and putting out new/updated tutorials isn't impossible, but crowd sourcing it is a much better idea.

All Uber need to do is make sure there is a system in place to get the user created tutorials(of which there will be plenty created throughout the Alpha and Beta Periods) to the new players, potentially having a standardized format that's easy to slot into the game or using a feedback/voting system to keep any "troll-orials" from getting used.

Of course it all needs to be optional, let the player decide if they want to view them or not and make sure they're easily accessible from the menu incase they want to go back and view some.

They could even be categorized to make browsing easier, Build Orders, Economy, unit composition and such, between that and a feedback/voting system it allows the player to easily find what they want/need and not have to overly worry about it being wrong or out of date.

Mike

@Knight I totally agree with you. The metagames changes alot and crowd sourcing is much more informative and up to date. But for Basic stuff its somtimes just easier, if u can directly try it out....
What would be cool if Uber would itegrade Build order/guides into their game, like in HON, and u can just open an BO hub to look up an build or memorize an old one.
A website for it would be ok to, like Liquidpedia for Starcraft II. In older games like Starcraft1 Warcraft III or C&C games, its quite hard to find clear builds... often they are hidden in Forums.
Voting System would be brilliant! Such an "Build database" would be pretty unique and new in the RTS genre.

Knight, that is brilliant. Please read his post Uber!

Skills like managing the economy, and maintaining a good amount of scouting should have tutorials for them... even if they are scripted and staged, I don't think the metagame of getting intel, and keeping the bank happy will ever change.

IMO, if new players learn those to a satisfactory level before adventuring into PVP, then they'll be able to learn the metagame by themselves just fine.

Y'know, another way to enter the PVP arena would be to have a transparent (for the player) system that pitted players unwittingly against AI opponents for the first few games, and once the player successfully beats the AI (2,3 games?) then they enter the larger pool of PVP players.

This would prevent your initial ranked games from being a terrible experience, it would allow the ranking system to properly place you based on your skill, and it would give new players that little boost of confidence to keep playing PVP ("I won my first ranked game woo!").


I mean, face it, matching two unknown-skill players together has a high probability of being a poor experience for one player.

Knight is a genius.

You know, the UI in this game is essentially a browser.

It would be entirely possible to have inline video tutorials, possibly even referring to a user-created video. Players can follow the tutorials during their game in real time.

You can probably have some hooks in the javascript on the page too, so it knows if it's in a game or not, and if it IS, it can call up actual game elements.