Daggerfall Workshop Forums

I know the goal of DFU is to be as close to Daggerfall as possible, but come on

I keep seeing streamers and youtubers trying Daggerfall for the first time and getting completely confused by the extreme lag in the tutorial. Daggerfall is already a hard game to get into. The tutorial makes it even worse than it has to be. And the tutorial text is already changed to include some DFU info.

So, unless it's already planned, a QOL change to the tutorial timing would be really nice. It's no point doing it as a mod or an option, because by the time you figure that out, you probably don't need the tutorial anymore.

Let's go more specific. What kind of timing and how short should it be? Can you show any examples?

Well, the problem with using timers, is that if you rest (which you might do because of the rat) you easily shoot through most of the timers. Getting spammed with tutorial messages during your rest without the ability to react or digest the information.

The best solution would to have the tutorial trigger by flags. The tutorial asks you to equip a weapon and take a few swings: 4 swings and it pops up the next message etc.

But, simply looking at the timers, I'm thinking they could all be at least halved. Most people follow along for a few pages, then run into the rat before they're meant to, kill the rat, go up the stairs, fight the bat, either miss the imp, kill it or run away, then get the message to go into the first room and fight the rat.

Yes, I've been thinking about the tutorial too...
Changing the timing is a low hanging fruit, but I feel that there's so much more that could be done. Got a few ideas, but I've played too few recent games, I feel we could use the help of some game designed to avoid iterating too much...

Say,

• (starting the game) [non modal message, so it can stay displayed while the player experiments] "Move around using WASD, look around using mouse. Proceed to the corridor when ready"
• (entering the corridor) "Time to get ready to explore that cave. Press F6 to open your inventory"
• (opening the inventory) [Adding overlays on top of the inventory screen] "your character, with equipped clothing, armor and weapons" "backpack inventory", etc ... (click) "Equip armor and weapons, if any, and click EXIT to close the inventory"
• (inventory closed) [non modal message] "Weapons can take a moment to equip, don't panic. Once it's equipped, you can ready it with Z. If you equipped two weapons, you can switch hands with H. Proceed further down the corridor when ready."
• (further down the corridor) [non modal message] "It's time to learn how to save and restore your progress. Press ESC key to open the options menu"

interaction modes, combat, looting, sleeping, spell casting, etc...
Breaking down instructions, using visual clues, one order at a time, if possible shown while the player executes those, paced by player's progress (including repeatability: if you step back or reopen some screen you get the same information again)...

Sounds great Pango, I think this would be a great thing to do. Dunno if purists would require a setting for the classic tutorial or not, but I find it hard to believe it has much value.

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If the tutorial is location-triggered, it's possible to explain how to save the game right before the first combat, the way I described above.

I think it's as good as explaining how to save first, or even better because the player will have saved with his/her gear equipped.

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This is why I made the Start Saver mod. Which honestly would be a welcome function to just have in the game.

Have character creation trigger Quicksave. Quicksave is a new function in DFU anyway, so might as well use it for what it's worth.