Author Topic: Newbie Tutorials On The Way  (Read 6010 times)

Offline dm-horus

  • Banned
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1042
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« on: January 18, 2006, 09:41:57 PM »
Below are the backgrounds I made for use in a New User Tutorial I am making for OPU. I am designing it to look like a part of the OP2 interface and as such, it isnt as hi-fi as Id like but it does fit well. The first section I am building is a tutorial for colony games and is a basic introduction to gameplay. Taking the Campaign tutorial skips over what is covered in the colony game tutorial and explain waypoints, goals and objectives. A multiplayer tutorial will be made at a later time when I have come up with more content.

On that subject, I would like anyone who would like to provide material for a multiplayer tutorial to submit it here. Strategies, skirmish tactics, build orders and attack formations would be helpful as I rarely do OP2 multi.

I should be done with all but the multiplayer tutorial by Saturday afternoon.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2006, 09:42:29 PM by dm-horus »

Offline dm-horus

  • Banned
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1042
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2006, 09:49:32 PM »
I made New Terra in 3D and texture wrapped it. I built the texture out of hi-res mars global surveyor pictures, a desert texture I made in Terragen, the OP2 sand tileset, bump maps I made in Terragen and a shadow map I used for a desert planet I never completed. I imported the planet into photoshop and everything else was built there. Im not really proud of this series because it doesnt really look very consistent overall and the elements only give the perception of depth (the little amount that it does) because I added much more shadows and motion blur than I had originall intended. Either way, its kinda cool for 3 hours work.

Offline Freeza-CII

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2308
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2006, 09:52:37 PM »
thats cool but to me it doesnt have that op2 feel

Offline dm-horus

  • Banned
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1042
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2006, 09:54:58 PM »
This is the same as the full version except a bit darker. I think I like this one a bit better.

Offline dm-horus

  • Banned
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1042
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2006, 09:56:25 PM »
i agree with u, freeza. but i know stormy wants anything with "OPU" on it, so Ill let ppl do whatever they want with 'em. I plan on deleting them from my hdd after theyre uploaded here. I generally dont keep anything I dont find exquisite. I made this while I was half asleep and stormy said I need to submit something to get my name in the reunion credits and this is the only thing op2 related thats actually 'finished.'
« Last Edit: January 18, 2006, 09:59:44 PM by dm-horus »

Offline dm-horus

  • Banned
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1042
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2006, 11:16:36 PM »
This one took about 30 minutes to make.

Offline Leviathan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4055
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2006, 04:25:20 AM »
the tutorial's should be on the wiki not a download package.

love the pics.

there needs to be a lot less stars and the light needs to be less bright

thx for the work :)

Offline dm-horus

  • Banned
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1042
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2006, 04:57:34 AM »
you cant post a flash movie in a wiki article?

Offline Leviathan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4055
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2006, 09:00:50 AM »
not sure

i would like that OPU pic as a wallpaper :D

Offline plymoth45

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1062
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2006, 10:27:07 AM »
I don't know if you guys have thought about this, but I feel an in game tutorial that actually walks you through the stuff would be more usefull for new players, not having to minimize then maximize to access a webpage tutorial. I don't know how the wiki works, but I really do think this type of tutorial would be more cost effective if you know what I mean.

Offline Leviathan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4055
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2006, 11:44:12 AM »
We need both. Tutorials and guides to teach you the game on the wiki, tell u wut stuff is etc and also some new tutorials made. We have allways known this.

Offline plymoth45

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1062
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #11 on: January 19, 2006, 12:40:44 PM »
I kinda talked myself into a corner there lol. I also forgot to add 'while in game' after walks you through the stuff in my 2nd sentance up there. But I'll take what you said as you acknowledge this, which is good lol.

Offline Leviathan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4055
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #12 on: January 19, 2006, 01:03:06 PM »
Yea a tutorials could be made that includes msgs shown to the user at times to tell em to do stuff :)

Offline Stormy

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 678
    • http://www.op3game.net
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #13 on: January 19, 2006, 04:00:48 PM »
Quote
i agree with u, freeza. but i know stormy wants anything with "OPU" on it, so Ill let ppl do whatever they want with 'em. I plan on deleting them from my hdd after theyre uploaded here. I generally dont keep anything I dont find exquisite. I made this while I was half asleep and stormy said I need to submit something to get my name in the reunion credits and this is the only thing op2 related thats actually 'finished.'
what? when did I say anything?

I think you are talking about somehting else I was making (that I do not want to talk about, it's a surprise :D).. oh well, that's neat.
« Last Edit: January 19, 2006, 04:01:44 PM by Stormy »
`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·
3D artist in Blender, MS3D, and Terragen.
Trying to get good with Scene composition and lighting.

Offline Leviathan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4055
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2006, 05:01:35 PM »
Only OP2 stuff needs to be submited to us so we can include it in the OP2 download. Other stuff u can just release on the reunion, well u can also submit it so us so it can be uploaded :)

Offline BlackBox

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3093
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #15 on: January 19, 2006, 06:12:24 PM »
DM-Horus, if you're interested, I can give you pointers into capturing user input in a mission, so you could build an interactive tutorial directly into a mission. (That would probably be the best way to teach someone the game).

Offline Leviathan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4055
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #16 on: January 20, 2006, 01:31:27 AM »
Let us get guides on the wiki first :P

Offline dm-horus

  • Banned
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1042
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #17 on: January 20, 2006, 02:10:56 AM »
well, what i was working on was a flash tutorial. it shows you what to do and then you do it. i even spent most of last night getting screen caps so i could make flash based versions of vehicles and buildings. it was basically a highly stripped down flash-based version of op2. of course, theres no combat, morale or colonists. it just teaches structure placement, basic unit commands and waypoints, interacting with the summary tabs and building necessities. after lev told me we needed something for the wiki, i got rid of it. i designed it to look exactly like the game. it wouldnt be an .exe but couldve been put somewhere else on the site and linked to from elsewhere. ive been toying around with macromedia projector formatting and i couldve made it a stand alone tutorial that comes bundled with later releases of OP2. what i really need is some .wav versions of op2 sounds. that would really get the user focused and keep them entertained long enough to teach them something.

lev, ill have to remake the image to make it suitable for you as a wallpaper. the textures i used arent hi-res enough to look decent on your comp, since im sure your screen res is 437352357846 x 4260478534701 :P
« Last Edit: January 20, 2006, 02:18:36 AM by dm-horus »

Offline Leviathan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4055
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #18 on: January 20, 2006, 02:23:05 AM »
oh that sounds great! flash tutorials! great work :D

you can extract the op2 sounds from op2, and download the music as mp3s.

VOLExtractor

opu_op2musicmp3.rar

we would also like guides/tutorials for the wiki. ill put up my outline if i can find it.

well the standard res sizes would be great:
1600x1200
1280x1024
1024x768
800x600

Offline op2rules

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 257
    • op2rules.net
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #19 on: January 20, 2006, 07:23:01 PM »
Those pics are awesome! Keep up the excelent work!
Checkout my website, op2rules.net. It has free games, software, and snappy guides. Oh and did I mention the uber friendly community forums?
Life to me is a simple game that I utterly win at.
 ^--- GD Text Generati

Offline dm-horus

  • Banned
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1042
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #20 on: January 21, 2006, 05:30:09 AM »
thanks, ill make desktop suitable versions and post them on ftp.

Offline thablkpanda

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 249
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #21 on: January 21, 2006, 01:30:03 PM »
Oh yeah, those are sexy...

I could use a wallpaper one- too bad my desktop is like the oddest shaped one here... my resolution would be so f'ed up it'd make everything all stretchy...

I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.. whatever.

Panda

Offline BlackBox

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3093
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #22 on: January 23, 2006, 08:25:31 AM »
If you're looking to make a standalone EXE version of the game, why not just use the demo?

We could probably pare the demo down to a small size (say 1-2Mb maybe) and it would behave exactly like OP2 does.

However that's not an option if you want to run it directly from a website.

Also, if you want to bundle it directly with the game, it might be best to write a mission that captures user input. That would use the least space of all, and work just as well.

Offline plymoth45

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1062
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #23 on: January 24, 2006, 10:27:36 AM »
cripes, now someone thinks of what I was thinking, but at least he got it out clear lol. The misson/tutorial idea that tells the user what to do. It would be very convenient indeed, then maybe I could manage to get HVK involved in OP2.

Offline Leviathan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4055
Newbie Tutorials On The Way
« Reply #24 on: January 24, 2006, 01:35:16 PM »
Yea thats still one of our main problems, we dont have guides to people to learn to play for people who have never seen op2 before.