BZ community collab tutorial

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Moroni
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BZ community collab tutorial

Post by Moroni »

I recently made a post about creating an official video tutorial for BZ Flag. Yesterday, ahs3 reached out and after we got talking, we decided to collaborate on creating a tutorial map AND videos to go along with the map. We are still figuring out the details, but this will be a map that will probably allow one person each to play on it and allow 10 observers who will get a message in chat with all the available ports they can use to play the map if that one is currently being used.

The map will cover things such as shooting, dodging, using radar vs screen, jumping, and whatever else people feel need to be added.

We have so many talented players and we all love this game so we ask for each of your help. You’ve never made a map nor know how to write plugins or do any development? No problem! All we ask is you reply to this post and tell us what helped you to learn BZ Flag when you first played — particularly something that we could add to the map/videos — OR give suggestions and ideas as to what should be included in the map/videos.

If you can code and create maps, then please reach out to ahs3 or me, and let's get a nice group on this project so we can get it done faster. The more, the merrier!

Let’s help make our favorite game great again!
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tainn
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Re: BZ community collab tutorial

Post by tainn »

Great initiative!

Thank you for your willingness to create a meaningful entry platform to the game, Moroni, ahs3, and other willing contributors.
Moroni wrote: Wed Nov 23, 2022 7:55 pm The map will cover things such as shooting, dodging, using radar vs screen, jumping, and whatever else people feel need to be added.
I think this can work really well, especially since game settings (radar size, ...) can be adjusted without having to reconnect to the server, so newcomers and other willing participants will be able to tinker with these settings as they try things out.
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blast
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Re: BZ community collab tutorial

Post by blast »

A few possible options to allow multiple players on the same tutorial map:
  • Every tutorial user being on the same team, with team killing disabled. However, that might be a bit confusing.
  • Multiple copies of the tutorial map/course in the world, with a plugin that automatically spawns each of the possible players into their own course. Might also want to adjust the radar range to be sized for the course boundary instead of the world boundary.
  • A modified bzfs that doesn't send player updates for other players to non-observer players, and modified the MsgAddPlayer from a broadcast into a directed message sent to each connected player, modifying the team to show every other tutorial player as an observer. Also modifying the player shot messages to only send to observers.
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RJ
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Re: BZ community collab tutorial

Post by RJ »

Something regarding precise jump shooting would be a great help.

Regarding maps: Preferably a way of creating different jump scenaries with a target to hit. Not sure how you would implement this, but as someone who spent practically a childhood of slow jumping as a keyboard user shooting imaginary targets, I imagine creating such a scenario would shortcut a lot of frustration in learning a key aspect of the game.

Regarding videos: An explanation of timing with slow-mo jumps for keyboard users and whatever magic you mouse users conjure up.
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Moroni
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Re: BZ community collab tutorial

Post by Moroni »

Thank you for the replies so far!

Tainn: Yes, that was part of the reason we decided to have a tutorial map. Most of us learned by watching others do it and then doing it ourselves and that's the entire purpose of the map! We will recommend some settings, but let them know how to customize their config to their liking.

Blast: Ahs3 and I love all of those ideas and we will work on implementing that. A question I did have though... isn't there a limit on how many world weapons can be in a map? My only concern with having multiple copies of the map within the map is the amount of strain on the server (if that is a thing).

RJ: I'm glad you brought this up. Etigah actually made a plugin a while back (for hix) that does exactly this! Hopefully, we can use that in our map and keep the target movement random so the player learns the concept and not just memorize patterns. Every section will have a video/section of video that explains how to do each task and examples of it used in real gameplay. We will definitely talk about timing to explain jump shots. Thank you for the ideas!
D3ad Turtle
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Re: BZ community collab tutorial

Post by D3ad Turtle »

I think I have some screenshots of the famous "Chickenfarmer" laser ricos on MW2
I'll try to resurrect those if anyone's interested. Thanks for putting together a tutorial Moroni!
I also think you're fast turning option should be included under dodging technique!
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Zehra
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Re: BZ community collab tutorial

Post by Zehra »

I'll try to help a bit on the plug-in sector. I'm glad to see this collab taking off.

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