How to update tutorials' screenshots?

[DarkRain]

Yes, that's much better, only a few details: 1) the parts with dark blue text on a black background might be a bit hard to read, 2) you show the text for a couple seconds before showing the related image that was bit weird at first, maybe because a I was expecting an image, but I quickly got used to it, so not a big concern here 3) the campaign tutorial might be a bit spoilery (like about XVI)?

[Damyen]

Thanks for this feedback.
1- Ok. Maybe using some light blue (turquoise), like in the rest of the interface could do.
2- I choosed to do so to force reading of the (short) text, to give the feeling that waiting time was not too long, and to ease transitions (when text only is used). But i can synchro text + images if you prefer: the aim is to let readers feel comfortable. And it's always difficult to deal with tastes
3- I hesitated, but during campaign, I noticed that this button appears before XVI was mentionned in mails (and after campaign started). I'll will remove it though.

I had another idea for a new tutorial called "Tactics". If the players could feed some screenshots (1024 x 768) and comments, we could make a nice introduction to battle tactics (example: armor piercing capabilities for some rifles, use of smoke & incendiary grenades, use of IR googles to spot hidden ennemies, way to cover eachother, etc.).

[DarkRain]

Thank you for helping with the tutorials
1) Yes, that might work I guess.
2) Your call, as I said it's not a big concern, it's just that having the text on the top of the screen with most of the screen empty felt a bit weird at first, but that's my own taste I guess, so as I said: it's your call here.
3) Well XVI is supposed to be the big spoiler in the game (never mind that it's not really implemented yet), if the button is showing before the related mail that must be a bug.

Sure, if people want to illustrate some of their tactics that might help.

[Damyen]

Glad to help if I can This is the bright side of free and open source projects.

I am checking the "Tactics" forum to see what would be useful first, and reading gave some ideas for early integration of basic principles (for example, I already added a tiled view of the buildings that have an exit to the surface in the 2nd campaign tutorial). When tutorials are completed, I'll probably add a topic to ask for further ideas (but better finish "work in progress" first).

I'll submit another "preview .zip" in 2 tutorials.

[DarkRain]

Nice, I'll be looking forward to it

[Damyen]

Here is a new zip containing the updated seq_tutorial.ufo and screenshots (.jpg format to reduce size of the zip). List of changes :
 - All tutorials: turquoise used for titles ; text and images now synchronized; some rewriting; some renamed or updated screenshots (remove the old ones); different musics for different tutorials.
 - "Introduction tutorial" : added "skirmish" and "multiplayer" quick intro.
 - "Campaigns: part 1" tutorial: removed spoiler info.; added "air-defence" info (txt + img).
 - New tutorials : "Campaigns: part 2" and "Tactic battles".
I also tried to include the most useful tactictal tips in the tutorials.

I will continue with the last two tutorials, explaining how to set skimish or multiplayer games. I just would like to ask: are multiplayer games over the Internet only, or other connexion modes (even legacy one) are supported (even if not displayed)?

Please tell me what do you think (or just tell me that this second version... is better than the first one )

[DarkRain]

Well it is even better than before yes

I like it, and things I mentioned before have been addressed so I'm happy

Regarding multiplayer: well I'm not familiar with it, really, but from my recent testing it seems that the game will crash if you try to create a server without an internet connection, whether it crashes because you're not supposed to do that or some other oversight I don't know (but obviously crashing is a serious bug), but once the server is created others can connect over LAN with the local IP address of the machine running the server (it is even possible to connect to other instances of the game running on the same machine, but that is IMO a very poor hot-seat setup )

[geever]

First of all thank You for your efforts. I really like it.

I was thinking about if the research screen also spoiler a bit too much, but it is okay.

First I was confused, you said we should remove the old images so I applied the new set on a clean branch. Apparently these files were still needed from version 1:

Code: [Select]

$ for FILE in `grep -P 'image\s*"' base/ufos/seq_tutorials.ufo | sed -e 's/^[^"]*"\([^"]*\)".*$/\1/' | sort`; do if [ ! -f "base/$FILE.jpg" -a ! -f "base/$FILE.png" ]; then echo "Missing image: $FILE"; fi; done
Missing image: pics/tutorial/campaign1DisplayExample
Missing image: pics/tutorial/campaign1DisplayOptions
Missing image: pics/tutorial/campaign1FinancialGraphs
Missing image: pics/tutorial/campaign1Installations
Missing image: pics/tutorial/campaign1MailclientAndUFOpaedia
Missing image: pics/tutorial/campaign1Mails
Missing image: pics/tutorial/campaign1Messages
Missing image: pics/tutorial/campaign1MissionStart
Missing image: pics/tutorial/campaign1StatisticsMenu
Missing image: pics/tutorial/campaign1TimeFlow
Missing image: pics/tutorial/introBattlescape
Missing image: pics/tutorial/introGeoscape


Another thing I noticed that you had to create several images from the same screen to highlight different parts of the UI. More images mean more memory and disk space consumption. So I checked if there was a way to draw a border around objects in the sequence scripts but there wasn't... Until now! The sequence renderer is a crap, we should really merge it into the UI framework, but that's for another day. However I quickly patched a few lines for the border feature:

Code: [Select]

       obj2d outline1
       {
               pos             "512 200"
               size            "300 200"
               border          2
               bordercolor     "1 .53 0 0.5"
       }

This border is a simple rectangular one without rounded edges but you can combine it with wait and rem commands to go through the buttons on a screen pointing on each of them once...

-geever

[Damyen]

Thank you for your feedbacks, encouragements, and testing!

I like it, and things I mentioned before have been addressed so I'm happy

If I can, I try

I was thinking about if the research screen also spoiler a bit too much, but it is okay.

Yes, I had some concerns here, but I was thinking that adding images taking advantage of the nice art of the game could be a good incentive for new players. So, to reduce spoilers, I mainly choose early technologies of the campaign, or weapons listed in the sirkmish or multiplayer modes.

First I was confused, you said we should remove the old images

My fault... I should just have said: overwrite duplicates, and optionally remove <list of unused images>. The missing files are in the first zip, and are still needed indeed  (the second zip is a sort of "upgrade" of the first one, not a standalone version).

So I checked if there was a way to draw a border around objects in the sequence scripts but there wasn't... Until now!

Thanks! When I made my early tests, I tried to use the "size" keyword to highlight objects with semi-transparent rectangles, and was not really happy with it: labels became dim; placing the rectangles was not always easy (and was not sure about their positions on different screen resolutions). Moreover, when writing my ideas with pen and paper (oldschool way ), I noticed I would use many different screenshots anyway, and concluded that using screenshots only could also be an advantage: updating the sequence was really quicker and easier, just replace files without diving in the code (when trying different screenshots and highlights, this is a real time saver).

So I think I should proceed carefully: first finish the tutorials with screenshots only; then, download the new nightly build to check the changes in the GUI (I noticed in the commit log that you "updated some UI to give more space for texts"; nice!) and to get an updated sequence renderer; then, update screenshots; then, post patches in the bug tracker to keep record of this first versions of tutorials; and then only, test the new keywords.

Hence... Some more questions to help finish the tutorials.
 a) About text: will text be correctly updated in the .po files? In the current seq_tutorial.ufo, I just recorded deprecated text, and directly replaced the old entries with "_Something like that".
 b) About skimish mode / multiplayer: what is the "download" tab for? What do you download with it?
 c) About skimish mode: what is the effect of "alien rush"? and the effect of the "max soldier" setting in the "default" tab (I tested it, and had the impression it was the max. number of equipped soldiers you have in battle... but I had a strange behaviour after the first try: whatever the setting, I was getting the same squad over and over. So, some doubts here...)?
 d) In the multiplayer mode, what is the difference between "password" and "Rcon password"? (As I understand it, Rcon password is an administrator password to remotely connect to the server; and password is used by players to connect to the server... Some doubts here again)

[DarkRain]

Always glad to help

So, answers:

• Text: Once the final version of the tutorial is in the game the *.po files can be updated (we have our own scripts to handle that) which will add the new text to the files.
• Download: You can upload and download your skirmish/multiplayer tactical teams (as well as campaign saves) to/from our server (forum account required).
• Skirmish: "Alien rush" will keep spawning more aliens every turn until you lose or quit (or you manage to win: you'd need to kill every single alien in the whole map before ending your turn). "Max Soldiers" is the max amount of soldiers per player/team that should spawn in the map, you can create and equip a custom squad (which can be saved and/or uploaded for later use too) or if no custom squad is selected the game will generate one automatically either way the same squad will be used until you select/create a new one or quit I think.
• Multiplayer: You're right, the "password" is the one player need to connect to the server (if set), the "RCON password" is for remote administration of the server, (useful for remote controlling a dedicated server)

Edit: BTW I was wrong earlier about MP: you can create a server without an internet connection, the game only crashed when no network connection was available at all, so you can play over LAN without internet

[Damyen]

All clear!

we have our own scripts to handle that

Nothing to do, that's always good to read

"Alien rush" will keep spawning more aliens every turn until you lose or quit (or you manage to win: you'd need to kill every single alien in the whole map before ending your turn)

Alien rush seems quite a challenge. And no hall of fame to record exploits...

"Max Soldiers" is the max amount of soldiers per player/team that should spawn in the map

On my build of the 09/09 (windows version), this doesn't seem to be working: I tried with four (max. soldiers), and the spawned squad was eight phalanx soldiers, but only four equiped (the other four carried nothing at all). I don't remember the chosen map (=don't remember if there was a dropship to chose, and then if there could be some conflict between "aircraft choice" and "max. soldier" parameter).

the game only crashed when no network connection was available at all

Ok, this is just a glitch. I'll try to write something like "connect your computer first, and then set your multiplayer game" (draft sentence).

[Damyen]

Here is the third zip containing the updated seq_tutorial.ufo and screenshots (.jpg format to reduce size of the zip). It contains all the .ufo sequences for tutorials, but only the updated or new images.

List of changes :
 - "Introduction" tutorial: changed sentence introducing multiplayer (last sentence = "Start a server if you want to host a game, or connect to the lobby to wait for an active server.").
  - renamed images (just remove introCampaignFinancialGraphs, and campaign1FinancialGraphs; renamed files, "introCampaignFunding" + "campaign1Funding", are in the zip).
  - new tutorials: "Skirmish", "Multiplayer".

"Multiplayer" tutorial was build using on line info (manual), and tested using multiple instances of the game on my computer; error checking is welcome After taking in account your feedbacks, do you mind if I post the patches of this first version in the bug tracker, with .png images (total size: about 40 Mo)? It will allow me to rework images a little bit later, at a slower pace (I first proposed to take in account the GUI changes quite quickly, but I don't know whether I will be able to do it during these incoming days).

[DarkRain]

Nicely done, one thing that might be worth to mention in the MP tutorial is that when all players check the "I'm ready" checkbox the game will start automatically (just so no one is caught by surprise)

Yes it should be nice to have the first version of the tutorial in the tracker (maybe even in game) for added convenience and safety.

[Damyen]

Nicely done, one thing that might be worth to mention in the MP tutorial is that when all players check the "I'm ready" checkbox the game will start automatically (just so no one is caught by surprise)

Yes, this is an useful information!

Yes it should be nice to have the first version of the tutorial in the tracker (maybe even in game) for added convenience and safety.

Yes, indeed: even if I am careful when moving, modifying, or overwriting these files, mistakes do happen here I'll post the patches soon.

[DarkRain]

Oh I noticed the patch is in the tracker now, good