Suggestions for the tutorial (an attempt at newbie-friendliness)
issueid=2933 05-05-2014 11:45 AM
Junior Member
Number of reported issues by tkoyah: 10
Suggestions for the tutorial (an attempt at newbie-friendliness)

The Creator mentioned that he hadn't had much feedback on the tutorial mission. So I've started going through it with a critical eye.
Issues:

Can the scroll-whell on the mouse be used to scroll the help-text? This would be nice.

But also, for the beginning text, can I suggest (including blank lines):
"Welcome to a new game of ADOM
(Ancient Domains of Mystery)

Use arrow keys to scroll text.

You are playing a single"
Rationale: It took me a little while to work out how to scroll the text. ..number-lock was off, so that didn't help. But IMHO the ground-rules for navigating these help-texts need to be spelled out.

Whatever help text goes in there, if it's not "Use arrow keys to scroll text", it should be just one line of text. Then the beginning help text "You are playing a single" appears on the last line, the incomplete sentence hinting that there's more text to scroll down to. ..Yeah, I know there's a scroll-bar to indicate this too. But it's a visually-simple scroll bar, so some users might not cotton-on to what it is until you start scrolling.

I'd like to change "All adventures start in the same location although many places (specifically the dungeons) mostly will be randomly generated and thus differ from game to game." The sentence runs a little long, and the wording, especially the placement of "mostly" makes the sentence structure odd to me. Can I suggest: "All adventures start in the same location, at the north-east corner of the world map. But many locations, specifically the dungeons, will be randomly generated (mostly), and thus differ from game to game."

Also, if there is a scroll-bar, should it not behave like an OS scroll-bar that you can click and drag? (In NotEye) And, if it had up-arrow and down-arrow buttons at the top and bottom, it would be more visually obvious as a scroll-bar, and more intuitive to mouse (or newbie) users. ..This might all be planned already -- I know we're very early in the help-text implementation -- but if it's not planned yet, I wanted to make sure it has at least been considered. :)

At the end of the first help-text I'd suggest (with blank line included):

"Additionally you can access the integrated help system by pressing '?'.

Press the ESC key to close this help window and begin playing. "

I didn't correctly guess how to close the help window at first either.
I don't want to be too nit-picky about the very first help-text, but it is the very first, so it's important it's layed out clearly, and explicitly says the conventions for using the help-text windows as well as using the game.

..After entering the unassuming dungeon, the help-text window didn't really seem distinctive from the dungeon intro text along the top of the screen. How about help-text windows in general having a coloured border? Maybe single-pixel red, magenta, or other striking colour? (In NotEye only, of course.)

The melee help-text, as you near the first goblin rockthrower, the last sentence: "To melee an opponent you just need to move into the same tile as the opponent and attacks will happen automatically." Sounds a bit off to me, as you can't actually move into the same tile as them. And will you attack them once, or initiate the whole battle? The plural use of attack makes this unclear. Can I suggest "To melee an opponent you just need to move towards them. If they are not friendly your character will attack them automatically." ..This is also more informative, as it hints that you might not automatically attack creatures that aren't hostile to you, such as people in towns.

That's probably enough for one post. I'll go over the tutorial section a little more and see how else it might be newbie friendly-fied. :)
Issue Details
Issue Number 2933
Issue Type Feature
Project ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)
Category All
Status Implemented
Priority 7
Suggested Version ADOM 1.2.0 pre 22
Implemented Version ADOM 2.3.0 (r73)
Milestone "Ease of Use" UI
Votes for this feature 0
Votes against this feature 0
Assigned Users adom-admin, jt, Zeno
Tags (none)




05-06-2014 10:52 AM
The Creator
Please separate such RFEs more clearly in the future (by e.g. separating NotEye features from textual features). In that way it's much easier to fix such things.

The textual issues have been addressed.

05-06-2014 08:41 PM
jt jt is offline
Administrator
As you already assumed, the NotEye version of the help window is not finished yet... we did not have enough time to use the (already created) graphics, so this window will improve in the future.

I'm not sure about the scroll wheel / scroll bar, because Zeno mentioned that this is quite difficult to add... but I agree that it would be useful. :)

05-07-2014 05:07 AM
Junior Member
Thanks for the advice adom-admin. This is the first time I've put in a bug report or feature request, so the guidance is appreciated. ..I wanted you to know that even us long-time players are considering the tutorial, and how it might help the newer adventurers.

And @jt, good to know that there's more to come for the window graphics. I'm eager to see how it develops.

..If scroll-wheel support is hard, that's okay. I just remember that was one of the things I tried to get it to scroll at first. If you had asked me, before I used NotEye, if I would use the mouse with that version, I would have said "never!" But I find myself from time to time just pointing the mouse pointer where I want to go and dragging the mouse wheel in a relaxed manner to walk there. Similarly I would have thought I'd still be playing the plain ASCII version from time to time .. but this pretty NotEye interface is really growing on me. Even wee touches like the animated water make me go "wow, that's pretty .. I remember when that was just dull blue equals-signs on my fuzzy Amiga monitor." :)

07-14-2017 11:29 AM
The Creator
Implemented.

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