The Shivan Tutorial Was Fantastic

[Lightslinger]

Just inspired to make a post about what was one of my favorite later changes to the game: The Shivan Tutorial.

I had ran Outbreak/Breakout hundreds of times, but by the time Issue 21 rolled around I had been skipping the tutorial for a long time. The Shivan Tutorial was such a fantastic addition to the game. Because modern journalism has made my thoughts all form in list mode, here are some things I liked about it:

-The graphics were excellent, the environments, the new Shivans, everything about it looked like a modern game.
-The voice work: Not perfect, but an excellent and not overbearing addition.
-Hard for me to say because I was an old pro when it released, but it really seemed like it would do a great job of teaching a new player the ropes without taking forever.
-Epic: That boss battle was amazing, they didn't hold back at all.
-The comic book art: I'm a huge fan of David's work, sure it wasn't perfect, his female anatomy could use a work but that's practically a comic book staple so its hard to blame him. I loved that City of Heroes was moving in that direction, using comic panels to tell a story. I would prefer that over cut scenes 100% of the time personally.

The Shivan tutorial told new players "Welcome to City of Heroes where the players are the real Heroes and Villains and have real power to match."

The new tutorial along with the Atlas Park update and new lowbie arcs really made the game feel positively new for me. For me CoH 2 wasn't a new game, it's what the devs were doing with our current game. They took an old tutorial and an old zone and made it into something that felt like it was from 2012, which is nothing short of amazing considering the engine they were working with.

I know these opinions aren't shared 100%, there were those lamenting the loss of the old tutorial and zones, but at least the devs put an effort into preserving them in Ouroboros. For me though, I'm still thankful for all the hard work put into Issue 21.

[Shenku]

I actually enjoyed the new tutorial when it was added (and the short comic cutscene that came with it), but I was just sad that they didn't give us a "destroyed" Galaxy City as a hazard/trial zone or something to run around in at the same time... I think it would have been awesome to have added it as a new 40+ zone or something, since RWZ got rather old after too many people were only running missions there because of co-op powerleveling (often in the AE once that got added), PI content was always the same AV missions over and over, no one ever wanted to go to the Shadow Shard, radio missions felt stale after a while, and I couldn't do any of the Incarnate stuff since my subscription had lapsed into being free for much of the last year the game was up (Still depressed about that... All I had the chance to do was the intro arc, I never got to actually do anything with the Incarnate shards or whatever you called them...)...

I actually had a short 5 chapter story I wrote featuring one of my characters even that specifically led up to the events of Galaxy City being attacked and destroyed, and her part in trying to defend it and failing (Don't want to spoil too much of the story, since I might be tempted to post it here in the Roleplaying section some day, assuming anyone actually wants to read it... Posted it on my SG's forums, and it was largely ignored... :( ). Heck, the original plan I had was to make that five chapter story into a five issue comic, I just never found the time to actually draw it all... That story actually turned the page for my characters a bit in a sad sort of way, as I realized just how invested into the characters I was. Not being able to play any of them anymore just makes this all feel worse...

[Mister Bison]

It was cooler than the old tutorial, but one thing bothered me very much.

The defaultly too loud radio voiceover(s)

God was City of Heroes loud, I always was at 1 or 2 percent in the game, and further reduced the volume of my computer. Except the voiceovers introduced a new volume slider, which at the default 50 or 100, was way, way past what I even considered "very loud".

[Codewalker]

Yeah, I don't think it was just the voiceovers, but the fact that for some reason the game's sound system made EVERYTHING REALLY LOUD. Much, much louder than anything else on the computer at the same volume level.

I remember the first time I played it, clicking on the UI during character creation was deafening. "Enter game" = OW! And after copying to a new computer but forgetting to import my .reg file with the volume settings, I could look forward to the title screen music threatening to blow out my speakers.

Most of the time my in-game volume settings were 5% or lower. I don't think I ever intentionally set it above 10% the entire time I played the game.

[Mister Bison]

Yeah, I don't think it was just the voiceovers, but the fact that for some reason the game's sound system made EVERYTHING REALLY LOUD. Much, much louder than anything else on the computer at the same volume level.

I remember the first time I played it, clicking on the UI during character creation was deafening. "Enter game" = OW! And after copying to a new computer but forgetting to import my .reg file with the volume settings, I could look forward to the title screen music threatening to blow out my speakers.

Most of the time my in-game volume settings were 5% or lower. I don't think I ever intentionally set it above 10% the entire time I played the game.

Yes exactly, everything was loud, and the fact that voiceovers were on a different slider, that you didn't put to 5% yet... Once you had it back to the same level as SFX or BGM, it was okay, but before...

Were the sound artists deaf ? Did the test hardware had plugged headsets (but testers thought the loudspeakers were on ?), will we ever know ?

[Ultraamann]

I enjoyed the new tutorial, but I simply cannot forgive them for getting rid of Galaxy City.  I started all of my toons in GC, and I parked them all there when the game ended.  So, thumbs up for an entertaining new tutorial, but serious thumbs down for trashing GC, because f*ck Atlas Park.

[saipaman]

I disliked the new tutorial because the only thing it seemed to teach you was to "hurry up".  As if we didn't have enough, "speed" and "express" in the game.

[GuyPerfect]

Yeah, it teaches you how to click on some stuff, but it doesn't do anything to help you learn how to play the game. The old tutorials helped you learn how to play the game.

[JaguarX]

The new tutorial seemed to reflect the new mindset of the players aroudn that time. Hurry up! Must do everything as quick as possible go go go go, now now now, done. Waaaaaaaahhhh! I'm bored neeed new content!

The old tutorial seemed more laid back causal like the playerbase used to be known for. It showed you here, how to find this, the actual basics.
New tutorials seemed like a glorified map tour of some new shivans.


And people wondered why many new players came out of the new tutorials with odd questions that used to be answered in the old tutorial.



The new tutorial was certainly cool looking but alas, like anything, newer doesnt even means better. Even COX itself attests to that compared to many new games.

[Cinnder]

I have to say I agree with the latter posts -- too much hurry up and hey gee look at this; not enough actual tutoring.  Also didn't like how it was the same for heroes and villains.  In fact, there was way too much of that towards the end: content clearly developed with heroes in mind and then a quick inclusion of an excuse for a villain to be doing the same thing so that nothing separate had to be developed for redside.

Also, having tried CO for a few days in desperation recently because I have been missing CoH so much, I'm embarrassed by how much a copy of the CO tutorial story it was.  IMO, the worst bits of CoH were when it tried to copy other MMOs.  What made CoH so great was that it was different from the pack.  That's also why I can't find anything to replace it. :-(

[Rust]

I sorely missed Outbreak and Breakout. The length not only taught new people how to play the game...it gave you time with your new character. With the Fall of Galaxy City, there was barely any time to get a sense of your character and whether or not it would be fun.

Also, I missed the conversations of Outbreak. People grinding out the 100 Infected for the Badge...even in a team that got boring, so people talked. I remember being sad on one character that I had to zone out because the Zone Chat was so entertaining.

Finally, I really, really, really started to miss Galaxy City. As a horrible Altaholic, the ability to have two separate starting zones worth of content meant it never got super stale. By comparison, afterwards on the third alt, I was getting really sick of saving Atlas Park and the Shining Stars.

[GuyPerfect]

As a horrible Altaholic, the ability to have two separate starting zones worth of content meant it never got super stale.

What, we did have two starting zones! Mercy Island and Nova Praetoria.

[JaguarX]

What, we did have two starting zones! Mercy Island and Nova Praetoria.

well...it can be defined as such.


I liked Prae. and wished it expanded into it's own like villains zones instead of at 20 when the stuff really gets going, having to choose hero or villain.


Eventually they added Night Ward and First Ward but that was more of an all side zone instead of a specific alignment zone like say Steel Canyon or Mercy Island.

And it was sad that it was all but empty when they made it easy to build any build and be hero or villain. Kind of killed off Villain side too since there was no need to be villain to be a MM or Brute anymore. I guess they seen that coming and reason why Prae wasnt more. It was beautiful, look like it took lot of work and under used in the end. But COH had many zones that seemed next to useless anyways. Like Boomtown comes to mind. When the days of street sweeping went the way of dodo, it's like there was no longer purpose for it. Same with Dark Astoria, but they brought at least the name dark astoria back with the incarnate stuff in a new version of dark astoria.  Indepent Port was too big for no reason. And glad they revitalized Faultline and RWZ but Boomtown, they might as well deleted it.


But maybe with the new issues Prae would have played a bigger role, even though I do think the defeating COle thing came too early and meh on the epic scale. And death of Statesman kind of castrated the purpose of Arachnos as the leading threat to hero groups. I mean come on, Statesman should have at least died at the hands of Arachnos if anything, the leading villain group supposedly. Nope, it was a random guy named Darrin, with the usual overplayed straight out fantasy MMO playbook, magic powers. Yeah, magic, trumps all even in hero games it seems. ugh.

[Rust]

What, we did have two starting zones! Mercy Island and Nova Praetoria.

I never could get into Redside Content - I felt more like a Mob Enforcer/Heavy then a actual Super Villain. No wonder my highest level Villain was essentially a murder happy psychopath - Dual Blades/Willpower Brute named "Grinmace". Started out Jester Themed and after doing that one Accolade Storyline where you get access to the "Demonic" power...turned him into a Demon Possessed powerhouse. Theoretically Joker Themed, but Orange and Green coloration with the "Grin" Face + one of the masquerade masks (The small nosed one) and the Shark Hair style in a trench coat with striped pants. Highest I took him was Level 33.

As for Praetoria...I made many alts there, but I'm sad to say I never did finish any of the storylines. I was working through a Resistance toon named Demon Digger (Spines/Fire Scrapper) when the shut down was announced. Lost all interest in playing after that. Which is frustrating, because Demon Digger was the first character I'd created with an honest "Story Arc" I wanted to take him through via costuming (Teenager gets a demon skull embedded in his chest and it slowly corrupts him - taking him from a Hero to a Vigilante. Mid-30s would see the start of his "redemption" as the Legacy Chain eventually drives the demon out of the boy and replaces it with a Angelic presence).

But COH had many zones that seemed next to useless anyways. Like Boomtown comes to mind. When the days of street sweeping went the way of dodo, it's like there was no longer purpose for it. Same with Dark Astoria, but they brought at least the name dark astoria back with the incarnate stuff in a new version of dark astoria.  Indepent Port was too big for no reason. And glad they revitalized Faultline and RWZ but Boomtown, they might as well deleted it.

I agree. I adored the sense of scale to CoH, but the world space was too large and it only got bigger as leveling became easier.

But maybe with the new issues Prae would have played a bigger role, even though I do think the defeating COle thing came too early and meh on the epic scale. And death of Statesman kind of castrated the purpose of Arachnos as the leading threat to hero groups. I mean come on, Statesman should have at least died at the hands of Arachnos if anything, the leading villain group supposedly. Nope, it was a random guy named Darrin, with the usual overplayed straight out fantasy MMO playbook, magic powers. Yeah, magic, trumps all even in hero games it seems. ugh.

Actually I saw it a homage to the fact Superman's weakness beyond Kryptonite is to magic. And it makes sense, since Statesman's powers were technically magical in nature that he would be affected by it.

But I do agree - killing Statesman and Sister Psyche was really uncalled for. "Who Will Die?" is not an arc I really enjoyed, mostly because these were the Surviving Eight. I know as time went on, the Rikti War lost its significance to The Coming Storm, but for myself...killing any of the Eight seemed wrong.

[saipaman]

I'm sure eventually Boomtown would have gotten a re-vamp.  On red side, there were missions into a partially repaired Boomtown.  That should have been the map everyone started seeing after reaching a certain level.

[LydiaFrost]

I see it from the Villain Side, and there Pandoras Box was really good.
As a Villain you start to build up your own organization. I felt really motivated, getting new peaple on MY Team and working for MY standing as Villain.
Wheras when I played it as Hero, it felt like every step, the heroes didnt have the initiative. They basicly reacted to what I did as Villain.
I really loved the Storys :)

And for killing Statesman by someone else, resolved the Conflict between Statesman and Lord Recluse in a way, to rob the major Villain of his personal Nemesis, his sole Motivation. That triggered a change of Focus for Lord Recluse too. Now he has to step up to protect the world, instead of leaving that work to Statesman. Thats why he seeks a spot in the endfights of Dark Astoria and Who will Die.

I expected to see more of him

For me the Shivan tutorial felt like a copy of COs tutorial. I didnt like it that much, since it didnt add anything intresting.
Its wasnt complete Fail though, like the flying race in CO, wich is a copy of DCUOs races. Its fail in CO, because you automaticly loose if you dont have the highest level in flight, and there are no races for other travel Powers. In DCUO they have races for different levels and the different Movement powers.

Lydia Frost MM

[Lightslinger]

I do see how the new tutorial felt rushed and I think that could have been fixed over time. I would have definitely liked to see more areas added that featured other game skills. The old tutorial definitely taught more, but in my opinion, it had not aged well and was a poor representative of the game for new players.

As far as being similar to CO's introduction, I agree but only in so much as its an alien invasion. CO's tutorial asks the player to hang around just a bit too long for my taste. I prefer CoH's philosophy of a brief tutorial, though the Shivan tutorial was too brief really.

[srmalloy]

As far as being similar to CO's introduction, I agree but only in so much as its an alien invasion. CO's tutorial asks the player to hang around just a bit too long for my taste. I prefer CoH's philosophy of a brief tutorial, though the Shivan tutorial was too brief really.

Thinking about it, it would have been possible to tweak it a bit; after you got to the helicopter to go to Atlas Park or Mercy Island, the helicopter gets diverted with a priority mission -- heroes go to the old Breakout, where Coyote sends them off on what was the last mission of the old blueside tutorial (and the zone remains overrun with Contaminated, giving another way to get the old tutorial badge), then go to Atlas; villains get dropped in the yard outside the Zig to rescue Jenkins (from the old redside tutorial) before continuing to Mercy Island (and can go back into the Zig to get the badge there).

[Codewalker]

villains get dropped in the yard outside the Zig to rescue Jenkins (from the old redside tutorial) before continuing to Mercy Island (and can go back into the Zig to get the badge there).

Or better yet, Villains go there to *break in* to the Zig, planting explosives and blowing your way in. Once inside, you have the option of either breaking out some of the inmates and convincing them to work for you, setting them loose to wreak havoc on Brickstown for your amusement, or turning on them and attacking them just 'cause.

[Shenku]

Or better yet, Villains go there to *break in* to the Zig, planting explosives and blowing your way in. Once inside, you have the option of either breaking out some of the inmates and convincing them to work for you, setting them loose to wreak havoc on Brickstown for your amusement, or turning on them and attacking them just 'cause.

I must admit, that would have been awesome. Much more villainous sounding than some of the red side content felt.

I think red side's biggest short coming was that you always felt like a lackey doing stuff for other people, and never really did plots or schemes of your own. Even Positron seemed to admit this fault a little bit during one of his panels at C2E2 a few weeks ago. He said that Mayhem missions helped alleviate this a little, but my main issue with those missions was that you were still robbing the bank because someone else wanted you to, not just because you wanted to SMASH stuff and steal money for giggles and profit...

That's kind of why villain stories seemed to fall short to me, because that's always the feeling I got when I was doing anything but newspaper missions where I could crack some guy's skull in simply because I didn't like the guy... Almost everything red side felt like I was someone else's lackey, and almost nothing made me feel like I was just being bad because bad felt good... :(

Granted, I could have pretended that the mission text didn't exist, and just go into each mission with the simple goal of smashing as many people/things as I could, and ignore whatever the actual goal was, but then I'd be missing out on the same level of story driven involvement that the Heroes were receiving by ignoring the canon stories to make up my own...

Essentially, I'd be making it more difficult to play red side because I have to explain to myself why I'm there, instead of just going with the story as it's presented. Blue side made more sense, and was easier to go along with the stories on almost any given character. This is just a baseless guess, but it's probably why most people preferred blue side...