So in general what's your opinion of the tutorial missions etc in this version?

[Cadmium77]

I love the idea of flying this complex beast but I feel that to master it I'll need more than a few videos like that ones that came with Black Shark. I've heard that the tutorial missions would be much more functional than the ones in Lock On...

 

What say you?

[Grimes]

They are much better simply because of the triggers involved. The new triggers allow missions to highlight switches or displays and wait for the user to flip a switch to the correct value. They are much more straight forward and easy to learn because of this. My only complaints so far with the tutorials are that:

 

1. You can't "step back" any description the tutorial gives you. Basically you have to pause the mission if there is some long block of text or some confusing aspect of the tutorial. Once its off screen the only way to see a message again is to replay the tutorial which brings me to point 2.

 

2. You can't "skip ahead" to a certain step. Some of the tutorials cover alot of content, most of which deals with similar systems but different aspects of the system. So if you want to learn the start-up procedure and have it learned up to the point of starting the engines, you don't exactly need to hear all of the lecture items telling you how to start the engines. This really becomes an annoyance with training items that are at least halfway through the training mission.

 

But yeah. It highlighting switches you gotta use and then waiting for you to use said switch is insanely useful. I really hope they give the Ka-50 training missions a tuneup using this system.

[koyan]

Grimes, for both a "press the spacebar when ready" after each paragraph i think would help a lot. This way one can continue when ready or just skip items.

[Yellonet]

Grimes, for both a "press the spacebar when ready" after each paragraph i think would help a lot. This way one can continue when ready or just skip items.

Unless the first "item" is a prerequisite for the next, then we'd need the computer to make the correct settings for us in order to be able to skip ahead.

[Grimes]

I was thinking more of sections to skip to. For instance in the tutorial on using LGBs and the GBU there are at least 3 clear sections. 1. Overview/Prep, 2. Using LGB, 3. Using GBU. If you have the overview/prep part figured out, why do you have to listen to every little detail again if you just want practice dropping the bombs with instructions? For the start up, to the point of starting the engines is a clear and defined section. From there you can divide it up into different systems. Most of which do not need to be used in a specific order.

 

I fiddled a little bit with some of the triggers on the start up procedure tutorial. At the very least we could use the "Radio Menu, F10 other" to add triggers in to allow or deny text and voice over up to a certain point in the tutorial or whenever the user wants it on. Essentially it just takes the radio to be powered on within the mission, and an extra trigger item per step. Basically I just copied each step, then separated the "move to next step" actions and text voiceover into their own triggers. Then added a flag condition to the text/voiceover trigger. And also added triggers using add/remove radio item to enable or disable text/voiceover.

 

Granted if you want to be perfect things get a little more complicated. Repeating text/voice over isn't to bad, one just needs to add flags to keep track of whatever step they are on. Physically going back in the process is the more complicated part. If its a linear process, triggers must be in place to undo the actions of the player, for non-linear items we can live without the undo button, but still need to build in exemptions into the trigger system so it doesn't automatically skip each step if a switch is in the correct position.

[jazjar]

well, they're a lot better than the black shark tutorials ( at least )!

[Lulac]

I prefer "old school" - sit in cockpit and don't touch anything ! Leave the instructor to do his job . . . :smartass: !

 

Buy the way, how we can "step back" in tutorials ?! :cry:

[bradleyjs]

It just must be something that I'm probably doing wrong - but I can't get through the Navigation tutorial -- it always hangs when I set the TACAN (16X) and nothing happens after that... I tried like 8 times yesterday..

 

Is it just me or what?

[EvilBivol-1]

It just must be something that I'm probably doing wrong - but I can't get through the Navigation tutorial -- it always hangs when I set the TACAN (16X) and nothing happens after that... I tried like 8 times yesterday..

 

Is it just me or what?

 

It's not you. The mission was not completed for the Open Beta version.

[kylania]

Grimes, for both a "press the spacebar when ready" after each paragraph i think would help a lot. This way one can continue when ready or just skip items.

 

I read somewhere that the developers didn't want to have a "spacebar after each step" thing since that would break the flow of the tutorial and make it less immersive.

[skouras]

i like the new style press the button and move on....personally it helps a lot you can memorize it more easily...

[galagamo]

For me, the interactive tutorials are like the premiere feature in DCSWH aside from the WH of course.

In this version they kinda stink, but that's OK this is after all a...you know, the four letter word:music_whistling:

[Tronjer]

Altogether I welcome the new training, which is superior to what got delivered with KA 50.

 

However, my problem about these missions is, that if one doesn't follow meticulously the assigned tasks (i.e. not holding required altitude while performing a flight maneuver), the tutorial simply interrupts and there is no way of bringing back previous instructions. I either want a function to browse back and forth through text windows or, if this would require too much work, at least a .pdf version of training missions.

[kylania]

Yeah, the flight one where you have to do a 180 degree turn made me sad. I executed it perfectly, no speed loss, stayed within 5 degrees of tilt during my turn and ended up 180 degrees behind and the tutorial never continued on.

[Ells228]

But you still felt good about the turn, and that's the main thing lol

[kylania]

Wow, the Beta 2 tutorial missions are wonderful so far! A lot of extra information, really nice flow to them too.

 

So far I've done Startup, Take off and Maneuvers and Unguided Bombs. There wasn't any of the voice prompts overlapping each other anymore, they seemed to wait even if you did something early. Only had one button I had to hold long. The Take Off one had trouble registering my 360 degree turn. The unguided bomb one was a ton of information, I really enjoyed it and learned some new things. The expanded use of "Press Space to Continue" was nice. It didn't really interrupt anything and gave enough time to get prepared and read the text.

 

Adding voice to all of these would be great, I hope you have time for it! Really great improvements in these missions, thanks a lot! Some way of redisplaying text would be great as well.

[Lulac]

Tutorials are great . . . but I found myself looking on You Tube for some extra explanations of some procedures and issues . . . :music_whistling:

 

Somehow the guys who make tutorials on You Tube is easy to understand :)

[keyframe]

Yeah, the flight one where you have to do a 180 degree turn made me sad. I executed it perfectly, no speed loss, stayed within 5 degrees of tilt during my turn and ended up 180 degrees behind and the tutorial never continued on.

 

 

Same thing happened to me.

 

 

I agree that the new tutorials are amazing thanks to their interactive nature but like others suggested they definitely need to skip to sections or the ability to skip steps fast.

[coder1024]

The more interactive training is, I think, a key feature of DCSA10. Should be really great when they're done.

 

I tried the beta 3 and updated training missiong for takeoff and handling and at the end it tells you to do a 360 not 180 :) Still, I did the 360 and it never continued.

 

I think this is just the end. It says that this turn will be the last maneuver, so I'm thinking its done at that point and just not saying so.

[coder1024]

I again tried the takeoff mission the other night and this time did a much better job of staying in parameters during the turn. This time after the turn it came back and said I didn't do it good enough (paraphrased) and to try again :)

 

So it looks like if you do it REALLY badly it doesn't trigger anything. I've always found these sort of training missions frustrating in flight sims. You're trying to get certain triggers to fire and yet you have no idea how well or poorly you're doing until you're done.