04-13-2016, 10:00 PM
I was thinking, would seeing a flying robot really be such a big spoiler to the game? Wouldn't the only spoiler be when the player was able to control the bot manually?
People are right, we have a huge paradox on our hands. We can't teach things without showing them (how would you prepare someone for a maths exam without showing them any sample questions, or even equations?). We can't do it in a practical way, it's possible to do the theory, but that would make the game just a programming book.
I like @radioactivity's idea about 3 separate story modes (they could be completely different/unrelated plots).
My idea, although not a perfect solution, would be to unlock exercises as the player progresses through the story mode. This is only possible if we're allowed to alter the story missions. The mechanics would be something like: the player finishes the mission that introduced a grabber, unlock all exercises to do with radar/fetching things etc. Or the player just finished a mission which introduced him to the last of the buildings needed to create a sustainable base, unlock exercises about production line/base management.
This of course falls flat on the face when we have players who are only interested in the exercises, such as competitions or workshop participants (could add an option to unlock all exercises then, since the players aren't interested in the story mode anyway). Or if we're not keen on changing the story missions.
Information related to how to use the objects/robots/buildings could be in the SatCom on the relevant mission (the general idea i got from reading the thread is that we want to hold the player's hand from the very beginning, having exercises/tutorials for things as simple as ore->converter=titanium. I think this would be an overkill and what Epsitec people did was good enough.
Hopefully this might spark some other ideas.
People are right, we have a huge paradox on our hands. We can't teach things without showing them (how would you prepare someone for a maths exam without showing them any sample questions, or even equations?). We can't do it in a practical way, it's possible to do the theory, but that would make the game just a programming book.
I like @radioactivity's idea about 3 separate story modes (they could be completely different/unrelated plots).
My idea, although not a perfect solution, would be to unlock exercises as the player progresses through the story mode. This is only possible if we're allowed to alter the story missions. The mechanics would be something like: the player finishes the mission that introduced a grabber, unlock all exercises to do with radar/fetching things etc. Or the player just finished a mission which introduced him to the last of the buildings needed to create a sustainable base, unlock exercises about production line/base management.
This of course falls flat on the face when we have players who are only interested in the exercises, such as competitions or workshop participants (could add an option to unlock all exercises then, since the players aren't interested in the story mode anyway). Or if we're not keen on changing the story missions.
Information related to how to use the objects/robots/buildings could be in the SatCom on the relevant mission (the general idea i got from reading the thread is that we want to hold the player's hand from the very beginning, having exercises/tutorials for things as simple as ore->converter=titanium. I think this would be an overkill and what Epsitec people did was good enough.
Hopefully this might spark some other ideas.