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Fayke

Wood
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
So, right now as I see it the main reason the server doesn't have many new players is because they quickly get confused about the servers many mechanics, and leave quickly after joining because they don't actually know what to do. The tutorial Herocraft has right now is lackluster, and quite frankly, a mess. There's loads of floating holograms, barriers, etc. and overall it is just a mess that doesn't get the job done. A new tutorial is needed. My idea is, that rather than having holograms and such for the player to read, in order to actually progress to the actual server, they will need to follow instructions and complete a set of tasks in order to prove they know what they're doing. The tutorial would take place in an area that is sealed off from the rest of the world. Multiple players could be in the tutorial at a time, but it is essentially just going to be a large, boxed in plot of land with all of the things necessary for the player to do the tasks. It would go a little something like this.

Upon joining you are in the closed off area (not too many barriers! let them roam a bit)... In chat you will receive messages, each -(text) represents a separate message. You spawn with nothing in your inventory. Chat messages are displayed every 6 seconds, and if an objective comes up it is also displayed in chat. In order to progress to the following messages you must complete the objective.
- Welcome to the Realm of Herocraft, (player name)! Before begin your journey, we must teach you how to survive in this great, magical world. Trust us, and pay attention here, for if you don't you will become lost quickly.
- There are a large variety of combat classes and professions that you can take up and improve your abilities in here. In order to select your combat class, type /class in chat and click on a class icon to choose it. If you choose a class and decide you want to change things up a bit, you can do /class again to change your class for a sum of coins.
Objective: Type /class and select your combat class
- Now, before you can start killing things, you will need a weapon to fight with. Type /hero tools and look for the tool that has the highest damage. It may be an axe, a hoe, a shovel, or several other things. Once you've got that down, type /shop in chat. From there, click the diamond sword. Here you can buy a weapon for your class. Using the /hero tools command from earlier, find the correct weapon and click on it to buy it.
Objective: Type /shop, click the diamond sword and purchase a weapon for your class
(the player has 50 coins when they start in the tutorial).
- Great! Now that you've selected your class and bought a weapon, you can kill animals and other undead creatures to gain experience. You see that skeleton over there? You should go hit him a few times and see what happens!
(a little bit away from where you spawned there will be a skeleton wearing a golden helmet. The skeleton has 1 health, and is a 1 shot when you attack them. The skeleton will give you LOTS of EXP, so that you're immediately level 60. It will be reset after the tutorial)
Objective: Attack the skeleton
- Wow, that was quick! You'll surely turn out to be a great warrior, although not without one thing. Your skills! As you level up, your class will unlock new skills that you can use to fend off enemies. Type /skills to see what skills you've unlocked. Then, click and drag them into your hotbar slot, and press the number the slot is in to activate the skill.
Objective: Type /skills, and use one of your skills
- Cool, huh? Alternatively, you can hold an item and do /bind, a space, and then the skill name in order to bind a skill to an item. If you hold the item and right click, it will use the skill.
Objective: While holding an item, type /bind <skill name> and right click to use the skill
- The final way to use a skill is simply just by typing out the command. This is better for skills you would not use in combat. Simply type /skill, then the skill name in order to use the skill using a command. Short and sweet!
- Now that you have mastered the art of combat, you're ready to learn about professions. Professions are sort of like jobs, as each has their own function in the world of Herocraft. There are several professions for you to choose from. Type /hero specs to see what your options are.
- Before you can choose your profession, you first must master crafter. You can view your crafter and combat experience on the right side of your screen. In order to gain crafter experience you can mine ores, cut down trees, farm crops, and some other things. If I recall, there's a large gold cluster just north of here. Go mine it out and see if you can get anything good.
(a diamond pickaxe will be put into your inventory after this message)
Objective: Mine 5 Gold Ore with your pickaxe
(upon breaking the ore they will drop gold ingots. After breaking the 5 ores your crafter will be mastered, each giving loads of experience.)
- Wow, that's quite a bit of gold! Now that you've mastered crafter, you can type /hero prof, and then the profession name to choose the profession. Each class levels up in different ways, but overall it is generally similar to crafter. You can check out the professions section of hc.to/wiki to see how each class levels up.
- For now, we'll have you select miner as your profession. Using the command we showed you just now, select miner for your profession
Objective: Use /hero prof miner to choose the miner profession
(your class will automatically be mastered upon selecting)
- Awesome! As you level up more by mining ores and whatnot, you will gain more experience and skills, similarly to your combat class. You can use them in the same way. Oh, and by the way, you are going to need some money in order to get started. I've taken the courtesy of giving you some to start out, but you are going to run out eventually.
- You can see how many coins you have by doing /money. The currency of this realm is gold, as one would expect. You can exchange gold for coins at the gold exchange. I believe there is one near by here. Go find the exchange, and trade your gold for coins.
(there will be a small gold exchange near by, possibly a small tent or something with the gold exchange shop.)
Objective: Exchange your gold in for coins at the gold exchange
- You're catching on fast. I think we should be almost done here. See that portal over there? That's the nexus, or at least the miniature version of it. Once you go through there you'll be taken to a network of portals that go all over the world, in random locations, in the dungeons and spawn as well. Step through that portal, and you can make your way into our lovely world. Remember what we have told you!
- If you forget what you have learned here you can ask some of your friends, or you can come back by using the command /tutorial. We hope that you enjoy your stay! Oh, and if you get hurt while going through the portal, just eat a little bit when you make it out. It's a strange side effect, but the food helps.
Objective: Walk through the portal into the nexus.
(when you walk through the portal you will spawn in a miniature nexus. The only portal in that nexus will be the portal to spawn, and a portal to the dungeons. If you try to go through the dungeons one it will say "Only the true nexus can handle the dark magic of the dungeons.")
Once you're in the mini nexus you get a new objective, as well as taking 3 hearts of damage.
Objective: Go through the portal to spawn
(upon going through the spawn portal you will be reset back to level 0 combat class and level 0 crafter)
Then you're done!

Even if this tutorial doesn't cover literally everything, I think it would do a much better job of the current one. What it does is...:
Introduce classes
Introduce professions
Introduce skills
Explains leveling
Teaches how to make money
Introduces the /shop, and how to use it
Some basic hero commands (tools and armor)
Introduces the nexus
Teaches how to get to dungeons
Teaches how to heal using food
Refers them to the wiki, which is very useful for newbies

What it doesn't do:
Explain LWCs - I feel like new players wouldn't be worrying about that anyways, as they wouldn't have the funds. They would eventually find out about them from tips in chat and whatnot.
Some other stuff, that I don't really know about myself...

I hope this idea is good, as I really feel that it could help the server a lot, and possibly expand the community... Anyways, thanks for reading. Have a nice day!
 
Last edited:

ncbugboy

Legacy Supporter 4
Joined
Jun 1, 2013
I wish I could put more than like or agree on this. Please, herocraft staff, for the love of god do this. The current tutorial is a bunch of holograms to the face. I have a feeling this would increase the server retaining rate 10 fold.
 

Fayke

Wood
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
I wish I could put more than like or agree on this. Please, herocraft staff, for the love of god do this. The current tutorial is a bunch of holograms to the face. I have a feeling this would increase the server retaining rate 10 fold.
Thanks for the support, I appreciate it
 

Fayke

Wood
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
If, for whatever crazy reason, you don't think this is a big priority at the moment...
hEhjUiN.png

RPOtnec.png


He left after about 5 minutes
 

Kainzo

The Disposable Hero
Staff member
Founder
Adventure Team
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
Location
The 7th Circle of Heaven
So, right now as I see it the main reason the server doesn't have many new players is because they quickly get confused about the servers many mechanics, and leave quickly after joining because they don't actually know what to do. The tutorial Herocraft has right now is lackluster, and quite frankly, a mess. There's loads of floating holograms, barriers, etc. and overall it is just a mess that doesn't get the job done. A new tutorial is needed. My idea is, that rather than having holograms and such for the player to read, in order to actually progress to the actual server, they will need to follow instructions and complete a set of tasks in order to prove they know what they're doing. The tutorial would take place in an area that is sealed off from the rest of the world. Multiple players could be in the tutorial at a time, but it is essentially just going to be a large, boxed in plot of land with all of the things necessary for the player to do the tasks. It would go a little something like this.

Upon joining you are in the closed off area (not too many barriers! let them roam a bit)... In chat you will receive messages, each -(text) represents a separate message. You spawn with nothing in your inventory. Chat messages are displayed every 6 seconds, and if an objective comes up it is also displayed in chat. In order to progress to the following messages you must complete the objective.
- Welcome to the Realm of Herocraft, (player name)! Before begin your journey, we must teach you how to survive in this great, magical world. Trust us, and pay attention here, for if you don't you will become lost quickly.
- There are a large variety of combat classes and professions that you can take up and improve your abilities in here. In order to select your combat class, type /class in chat and click on a class icon to choose it. If you choose a class and decide you want to change things up a bit, you can do /class again to change your class for a sum of coins.
Objective: Type /class and select your combat class
- Now, before you can start killing things, you will need a weapon to fight with. Type /hero tools and look for the tool that has the highest damage. It may be an axe, a hoe, a shovel, or several other things. Once you've got that down, type /shop in chat. From there, click the diamond sword. Here you can buy a weapon for your class. Using the /hero tools command from earlier, find the correct weapon and click on it to buy it.
Objective: Type /shop, click the diamond sword and purchase a weapon for your class
(the player has 50 coins when they start in the tutorial).
- Great! Now that you've selected your class and bought a weapon, you can kill animals and other undead creatures to gain experience. You see that skeleton over there? You should go hit him a few times and see what happens!
(a little bit away from where you spawned there will be a skeleton wearing a golden helmet. The skeleton has 1 health, and is a 1 shot when you attack them. The skeleton will give you LOTS of EXP, so that you're immediately level 60. It will be reset after the tutorial)
Objective: Attack the skeleton
- Wow, that was quick! You'll surely turn out to be a great warrior, although not without one thing. Your skills! As you level up, your class will unlock new skills that you can use to fend off enemies. Type /skills to see what skills you've unlocked. Then, click and drag them into your hotbar slot, and press the number the slot is in to activate the skill.
Objective: Type /skills, and use one of your skills
- Cool, huh? Alternatively, you can hold an item and do /bind, a space, and then the skill name in order to bind a skill to an item. If you hold the item and right click, it will use the skill.
Objective: While holding an item, type /bind <skill name> and right click to use the skill
- The final way to use a skill is simply just by typing out the command. This is better for skills you would not use in combat. Simply type /skill, then the skill name in order to use the skill using a command. Short and sweet!
- Now that you have mastered the art of combat, you're ready to learn about professions. Professions are sort of like jobs, as each has their own function in the world of Herocraft. There are several professions for you to choose from. Type /hero specs to see what your options are.
- Before you can choose your profession, you first must master crafter. You can view your crafter and combat experience on the right side of your screen. In order to gain crafter experience you can mine ores, cut down trees, farm crops, and some other things. If I recall, there's a large gold cluster just north of here. Go mine it out and see if you can get anything good.
(a diamond pickaxe will be put into your inventory after this message)
Objective: Mine 5 Gold Ore with your pickaxe
(upon breaking the ore they will drop gold ingots. After breaking the 5 ores your crafter will be mastered, each giving loads of experience.)
- Wow, that's quite a bit of gold! Now that you've mastered crafter, you can type /hero prof, and then the profession name to choose the profession. Each class levels up in different ways, but overall it is generally similar to crafter. You can check out the professions section of hc.to/wiki to see how each class levels up.
- For now, we'll have you select miner as your profession. Using the command we showed you just now, select miner for your profession
Objective: Use /hero prof miner to choose the miner profession
(your class will automatically be mastered upon selecting)
- Awesome! As you level up more by mining ores and whatnot, you will gain more experience and skills, similarly to your combat class. You can use them in the same way. Oh, and by the way, you are going to need some money in order to get started. I've taken the courtesy of giving you some to start out, but you are going to run out eventually.
- You can see how many coins you have by doing /money. The currency of this realm is gold, as one would expect. You can exchange gold for coins at the gold exchange. I believe there is one near by here. Go find the exchange, and trade your gold for coins.
(there will be a small gold exchange near by, possibly a small tent or something with the gold exchange shop.)
Objective: Exchange your gold in for coins at the gold exchange
- You're catching on fast. I think we should be almost done here. See that portal over there? That's the nexus, or at least the miniature version of it. Once you go through there you'll be taken to a network of portals that go all over the world, in random locations, in the dungeons and spawn as well. Step through that portal, and you can make your way into our lovely world. Remember what we have told you!
- If you forget what you have learned here you can ask some of your friends, or you can come back by using the command /tutorial. We hope that you enjoy your stay! Oh, and if you get hurt while going through the portal, just eat a little bit when you make it out. It's a strange side effect, but the food helps.
Objective: Walk through the portal into the nexus.
(when you walk through the portal you will spawn in a miniature nexus. The only portal in that nexus will be the portal to spawn, and a portal to the dungeons. If you try to go through the dungeons one it will say "Only the true nexus can handle the dark magic of the dungeons.")
Once you're in the mini nexus you get a new objective, as well as taking 3 hearts of damage.
Objective: Go through the portal to spawn
(upon going through the spawn portal you will be reset back to level 0 combat class and level 0 crafter)
Then you're done!

Even if this tutorial doesn't cover literally everything, I think it would do a much better job of the current one. What it does is...:
Introduce classes
Introduce professions
Introduce skills
Explains leveling
Teaches how to make money
Introduces the /shop, and how to use it
Some basic hero commands (tools and armor)
Introduces the nexus
Teaches how to get to dungeons
Teaches how to heal using food
Refers them to the wiki, which is very useful for newbies

What it doesn't do:
Explain LWCs - I feel like new players wouldn't be worrying about that anyways, as they wouldn't have the funds. They would eventually find out about them from tips in chat and whatnot.
Some other stuff, that I don't really know about myself...

I hope this idea is good, as I really feel that it could help the server a lot, and possibly expand the community... Anyways, thanks for reading. Have a nice day!
So at the start, I removed the barriers --- its much more free flowing.

I'll need @Admins to assist on the rest of this..
 

xexorian

Admin ZeeZo
Retired Staff
Joined
Apr 7, 2011
Location
USA
I'll definitely give some input and try to help with this re-do. I need time to get around to this. Maybe @Danda can help?

I can imagine starting this out on a separate server, make a quick world edit area in a void world, do a quick custom world, that's linear, have it lead you around from the start, maybe make some waterfalls off the edge of the thing, when you fall into the void you teleport back to the start location or die and respawn there. (maybe keepinventory=true on this shard).

-Deny all commands, and only after doing each section of the quests let them use specific commands.
-Grant them specific permission nodes during tutorial progression. If they use the command /tutorial have it reset these and the tutorial questline. (No effect on real 'survival' or "LIVE")
-Let them use freely all hero skills though, and maybe see a more refined /hero menu and such with less bloat they won't be using here. So they can only see help related to permissions they can actually use.
-At the end, the nexus portal will artificially hurt them into the mini-nexus, and have it give them some food to heal.
-Once they've eaten the food and are at 100% hp, they can then go through the last portal he mentions back to survival. (Dungeons may be up in the air atm, or we may change how the nexus works, so this last bit varies.)

-I might mention the portals as HeroGates. (Maybe we need a new portal plugin, heh.)

Aside from that tidbit, and changing the way he words some of the tutorial, such as leaving out the "And a space" part with skills, Example being: ...type "/Skill Gateway" which would teleport them to another area for the rest of the tutorial that they can't normally get to. This would make thing's a bit clearer imo.

Add in some flavor text such as "Hint: type "/Skill Gateway" to proceed with the tutorial." This would teleport them to another area where they can then learn about the second half of the tutorial. Making it required to basically interact with skills at least once. Gateway could just be a simple hero skill we can code for specifically that server.

I think, most of that, and like I said, a few minor adjustments, could be done pretty easily, it would take time figuring out how to setup the quests and permissions, but that might even be doable with a good bit of patience and thought. (There's a LOT of perms to filter through.)

The real problem is tracking the perms from that tutorial area with just any old quests plugin, and having that plugin be compatible with all of our other plugins we'd need, and then all of that also from survival.. and back and forth for when they use the /tutorial command again. I also see a problem with not just setting up the perms and finding a plugin for tracking, but we need someone to code us a new HeroGate's like plugin that handles all of our teleporting and stuff better. Maybe even plugs into a "HeroQuests" plugin or some other questing plugin that can track things for us like quests and other shtuff properly.

I suppose, it might be feasible to setup perms somehow with the command so that it removes most of the unnecessary perms from the default group by changing ur group and removing 'whitelist'. Then simply cleaning up all of the donor tier and other custom perms and their respective groups. This would be a much more huge project than a simple blacklist, and we could have the tutorial on the main world somewhere by doing it this way too. It'd be nice if we could setup multiple "World Boundaries" so that test is like a few thousand blocks outside of the main map area with it's own "World Border" like barrier. That might even be better. But I don't know how to do that with the plugins we've got.

Anyway /book
 
Last edited:

Danda

Dungeon Master Extremist
Staff member
Administrator
Guide
Wiki Team
Max Legacy Supporter
Joined
Jan 21, 2011
A better tutorial was something i brought up last meeting, it is something we have been thinking about and trying to figure out how to do.
This idea is fairly close to what I've been thinking about it's just a matter of figuring out how to track all of this and actually create this tutorial that's the hard part.

Also while you're writing is good it's too wordy for being output to chat. Several parts of that are too long to fit in the tiny chatbox MC gives us. If you're outputting to chat you need to be short and concise.

@xexorian if this is going to be a separate server instance rather than faffing around trying to give them each permission node as they need it just give them everything they need and just be done with it. You don't need to prevent them from doing things just teach them how to use them.

Additionally if this is a separate server instance we then encounter the problem of either forcing all players to go to the tutorial world each time they connect or not putting anyone in the tutorial by default. which I see as a fairly significant problem unless someone can find some functionality of bungee to resolve this. However this does provide the bonus that we can install plugins we don't want on the live shard, I believe I could build the tutorial using denizens though it'll require a lot of testing to make sure it works properly as we haven't had great experiences with it in the past. But I'm definitely open to alternate suggestions because it's not ideal.

For portals we actually use two different plugins, one of Multiverse portal (which only handles same server portals) and then Bungee portals for cross server portals which we currently don't use anywhere because we currently have no need for it.
 

xexorian

Admin ZeeZo
Retired Staff
Joined
Apr 7, 2011
Location
USA
We don't need a separate server instance. I think we need to just setup a 'tutorial' group in permissions that replaces the default permissions group, and swap them back and forth.

When they type /tutorial we can intercept that command and do:
1) reset their quest status in tutorial
2) change their permission groups
-a) add tutorial group
-b) remove default whitelist group (they get it back upon completing the tutorial)

When they complete the tutorial, we add back the whitelist group with default perms.

Players who have supporter benefits, pets, etc. Will not be affected by other permission groups because they should be mutually exclusive of this system.

The only thing to do is to make sure these players cannot receive a GTP, or other things, that would prevent them from completing the tutorial to re-gain their permissions to do things like /town create, etc. that would cause obvious issues inside of tutorial otherwise. (Which is one of the many, many, reasons I said we need to just separate them into perm groups. Blacklist everything, instead just use a whitelist of specific commands they're allowed and that's it. It's much easier, and simpler, and we wouldn't need to change any of our current work on the default permission groups now.)

It may be we can create a "World" like how HeavensWatch currently is used, except specifically for the tut.

A fallback is to simply have the command /tutorial available to both the tutorial and whitelist groups, so they can reset their progress if they encounter any issues, and regain their perms by simply completing a small short & sweet walk through.
 
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