Tutorial Bugs + Feedback!

[glass locust]

Did 3 attempts at the tutorial today! Overall it explains everything really well and I do really like it! There were some things I noticed that I think should maybe be added/clarified more! As well as some bugs I stumbled accross that I'm going to condense here! Also had a few additional gameplay Ideas I'll add towards the end that I was thinking about after playing the game with and without the tutorial! So let's get into it! I recorded videos when I could!

I exceeded the character limit again so bear with me I have to send 2 messages.

Noticed Bugs

• How To Play screen still says Tutorial coming soon...
• Dog collar occasionally spawns underground. It can still be picked up (so it's not a softlock) it's just more difficult to grab! [FIRST VIDEO]
• Fuse box stopped working on my second attempt at the tutorial! I think it might have been caused by me dropping my supply on the collection plate and it bouncing off the side/falling off. That was the only thing that I did differently as it worked my 1st & 3rd attempt! [SECOND VIDEO]
• Tabbing out occasionally caused my top monitor to turn black. This started after todays update! [THIRD VIDEO]
• Instance where I pre-maturely put the dog collar on the collection pad before going after the wraith. Caused the game to prompt me to end the tutorial despite the prompt for the wraith still being present! [NOTE: Not a softlock, but can cause you to miss the wraith in the tutorial entirely]. [FORTH VIDEO]
• Crouch stopped working when I approached the wraith. Smelling and other buttons were still working however! [FIFTH VIDEO]
  (This happened again in multiplayer, seems not to be specific to the tutorial, turning on the crouch toggle fixed it).

Things I (Personally) Think Should Be Added/Changed

• Tutorial button on home screen could pop up second screen that asks you to select what tutorial you want. Not important right now but could be useful when more tutorials are added!
• Tutorial noting the tab key AND scroll wheel on the mouse can change the scent type!
• Explain what the red arrow is on the compass
• Change order of wraith tutorial + grab the dog collar!
  Could be done by approaching the wraith and the game prompting you found a dog collar near the wraith. Prompting the player to have to quietly sneak around the wraith to retrieve the collar and quietly head back to your hub! (It'll make the dog collar part of the tutorial and the wraith feel a lot more seamless as well)!
• Clarify that the radio tower scent trail will only ever lead to a broken tower! How it works now is very well explained, but I think the clarification could be helpful as it was an issue my group had until it was explained to us!
• Explain the out of bounds ground enemy, that one confuses my entire group everytime they see it (it’s come into the main areas a few times but not sure if it’s intended or not).
• Robot Dog Explanation/Tutorial!
• Add part that explains the function of the speaker/flashlight/toy!
  I get asked about them constantly every time someone new starts playing and I usually have to give my best guess because I don't actually know! LOL)
• Allow the option to choose ur dog during the tutorial as it can be a great way to test dog breeds when they're different abilities are added!
• Add a tutorial completed check/flag to the game! Would make it possible for the game to prompt a player to play the tutorial before starting a single player session or lobby so they don't accidentally miss it! (I'm dyslexic and missed the tutorial prompt on the screen entirely when I loaded in the first time). [If possible shouldn't be per save file as that can get really annoying really fast if ur making new save files. Per game installation/launching the game for the first time would probably be better].
  

General Gameplay Suggestions After Playing Tutorial

• Option for scent fog for home base or home icon on compass.
  I like both, but I had some complaints with newer players getting incredibly turned around by the compass/it not being as easy to follow. Would be worth making it a visual toggle in the menu to have one or the other or even both if the player chooses rather than forcing one or the other on the player.
• Rescue Dog Objective?
  I really loved the dog revival in the tutorial, might be a fun additional objective for fetch since it's already implemented in the tutorial! (Could drape the dog on the bed and make them appear "hurt/tired" to explain why the NPC won't help the player)!
• Scent Trail Disappearing slower!
  Probably the most annoying part dealing with the scent trails is having to spam the button when running around to keep on a scent trail. I do think for difficulties sake the current system is on the right track! That being said. I think letting it stay on the screen roughly 5 seconds (or less) after sniffing so you have a chance to follow it a little faster before it disappears (fades off the screen) would be a really nice quality of life update!
  Additionally, maybe it could disappear like it does currently in rain to make it more of an increased difficulty feature/more immersive in certain weather conditions!
• Possible sprint feature
  Possible sprint that maybe lasts a few seconds? Long enough to give you that boost to outrun a wraith but long enough of a cooldown to force players to use it wisely!
• Wraith Stun?
  The flashlights don't feel like it has much of a use atm. Maybe it could be used as a way to stun the wraith for very short amount (like maybe 2 or 3 seconds) of time to give you the chance to run away. I could see this not being too game breaking since you'd essentially have to choose if you're taking an item you need or the flashlight, you could also end up abandoning a flashlight at random points of the map and loosing it (It also appears to be one flashlight per lobby so it could be even harder in multiplayer in some aspects and easier than others depending on how ur group goes about it)! [Using Dead By Daylight as my best example].
• Speaker Distraction?
  Speaker could be used to distract enemies similarly to the bark? Maybe you can drop it while it's on and it can last a few seconds to distract/lead enemies to it until an enemy shuts it off/breaks it!
• Visual Audio Cues Accessibility Feature
  I'm thinking something similar to what minecraft has as an option visual setting in the menu! One where a visual caption pops up on the screen indicating what you're hearing and in what direction! Would help for people who have audio processing issues (like myself) or are deaf (a friend I've actually been playing with recently)!

That's all I got! I hope this was helpful, the tutorial is already a fantastic addition!

[autumn grail]

These are all great, fantastic write up as always!

The rescue dog objective is definitely something I was considering as I added it in! Glad people seemed to like seeing it

The Wraith getting stunned with the flashlight is also a great idea!

I've just tweaked the scent trail time to start, I was planning to make this more dynamic in the future with certain breeds being able to track for longer (which I still plan to do, mind you) but this should be better overall short term!

[glass locust]

excited to see how it goes!! I figured this was the case but I was driving myself up the wall trying to follow a scent trail during the tutorial so I figured it was worth mentioning anyway

[glass locust]

I got very excited when I realized it spawned an NPC dog in the hub, it made the main hub feel a bit more alive my friend and I were joking earlier after I finished writing this that the lack of NPC's almost makes it seem like the dogs are bringing supplies back for humans that aren't there™ as if they're hoping to bring them back which is

depressing but this is a horror game

[autumn grail]

You joke, but you're hitting at least in the same ballpark as some of my plans for the story mode 👀 hahaha

But even still, at this stage it's definitely more ™ than anything lol

The humans will be included in the future as the game evolves, especially in that original mode I pitched with protecting your sleeping humans! That's still being worked on as well

[glass locust]

I have a follow up with the visual audio cues idea because I was yapping with my friend (the one who is deaf that I mentioned) who would probably benefit from it more than I would

She was explaining that the only time she can ever really tell when an enemy spots her is the tutorial pop up that always shows up when something has spotted you, which is nice! But it does throw them a bit into an unrelated panic because she has zero clue from what direction since we would usually be able to hear the general direction of them approaching at least, which has caused her to die a few times!

I was thinking about more possible easier alternatives and the game could even benefit from a brief visual cue that could be a accessibility toggle with an estimate of what direction the creature spawned it (like an arrow pointing left/right/forward or maybe even something similar to the grey dot for lock on appearing on the screen if its in front of you)

[glass locust]

I remember that!!! I'm really excited to see what comes for the story I keep getting questions about it and by god I don't know but I wanna find out

the entire game almost has an apocolyptic vibe without it being a completely destroyed atomophere like you would in a more zombie apocolyptic type game which is a very unique but fun approach that we've (my group I've dragged into the game with me) all been really excited to see more of

[autumn grail]

Very happy you’re all liking the vibe I’m trying to build up with the world! It’s all been VERY deliberate so far, so it’s nice to know it’s being noticed

I’m also really terrible with surprises, so there will be many more opportunities throughout Early Access to start to piece together the basic story once it’s ready hahaha

[autumn grail]

This is all very important feedback, I’ll start looking into more accessibility features!

[glass locust]

my favourite flavour of enviromental story telling super excited!!

[glass locust]

Thanks for hearing me out on that specifically, I don't doubt it might not be the easier to implement but it's appreciated!

[autumn grail]

Absolutely worst case, I’m sure I can pretty quickly throw in some kind of visual noise indicator, if only just a small arrow that flashes for the time being.

[lavish bluff]

+1 **great **write up Stella, covered a lot of points I didn't even consider before playing the tutorial myself! Also excellent work @autumn grail on already having implemented a number of changes, getting through the whole thing was fairly intuitive and included a lot of great information.

Hoping it's okay to add a bit of additional feedback here for tutorial!

1. Make buttons/hotkeys extremely obvious
   Including a visual indicator, eg. enlarged text overlay on screen, maybe towards bottom) would be good to clearly isolate the necessary action from the context.
   (Red text color is helpful but still contained after or within a larger chunk of text.)

2. Make objectives extremely obvious
   Having these as a check box would be a clearer indicator of done-ness, in my opinion. Additionally, having a red outline around the items and enemies would be helpful.

3. Text box size under with hotkeys overlay (nitpick, Image 1)
   Some of the more text-heavy explanations cause the text area to overlap with the hot keys overlay. Nitpick, does not necessarily interfere with gameplay.

4. Typo (absolutely a nitpick lol, Image 2)
   Typo for "Be cautious" box, "its" should be "it's". (sorry)