First of all, sorry if this is not the place to do this.
I created a little Handbook with the intention of helping new players learn about the game. I plan to add more questions and a Tips/Tricks section for people that want to know what the best way to obtain cards is for example.
I also want to make little 10 second videos that explain MP terms like “wallbouncing” since new players undoubtedly don’t understand wtf is going on when someone rushes at them like this.
So far, the guide is not impressive and it might not help many players, which is why I want to ask for feedback/suggestions/questions that you feel should be in there!
I wasn’t sure if I should make this a doc or type every question in here, if I need to take down the post I’ll just do the latter and keep the doc updated just in case.
Well this IS meant to be a FAQ to help NEW players mostly. In time I want to add tips and other things that should be helpful for players at every level.
I posted this to receive feedback since I literally just started it and want to make sure it grows with more information. Also properly set an index for different aspects and levels of the game.
Sorry you feel its not useful or anything, but I appreciate the time you took to check it out
Understand that everybody on here are a bunch of sweaty nerds with a minor in mathematics and a major in political science, so your FAQ obviously isn’t going to be appreciated by us too much.
Fair enough. I wouldn’t pay too much attention either since this is very basic info for the moment. Even so, every bit of feedback helps.
For example, I JUST realized you can counter pouncer jumps by revving up your chainsaw, immediately killing em. Had mt fair share of hours in Gow4 and around 500 in 5 yet I just discovered this. Thats the kind of info I also wanna add and the info others might have and want to share as well.
I think that it is wonderful that you are making a guide for new players I just hope that people will be able to find it. Maybe see if you can get it pinned on the Gears sub reddit some how?
Also, I think you should divide each section. Like have a versus section, horde section, escape section, etc. Also, you should have section purely dedicated to navigating the UI. So, the stuff where you were talking about how to equip characters/skins and stuff.
A huge challenge that you are going to experience with making a guide like this is going to be the “learning how to play versus” section. Teaching people fundamentals and all that stuff might not be as easy as writing it down in a document. People reading it might not be able to digest that information as easy. So, I suggest uploading videos to YouTube with examples of each versus fundamental along with the written description. Also, there are fundamentals in Gears that you can not really teach people and the big one I am thinking of is awareness. A person’s general awareness never really increases but what can be increased is a person’s situational awareness. So, the more people play the more situations they will become familiar with and the more they will be able to play off muscle memory. If you have to think about what you are doing then you probably do not have your fundies down. You should be able to play the game with out having to think about what you want to do. Everything should be instinct and the only way to improve your instincts is to play play play and two other things that people tend to not do and that is watch footage and thinking critically about why they are failing in certain situations. Watching your own footage if you can or watching high level gameplay like Grand finals at a tournament can help you learn things about Gears you otherwise wouldn’t be thinking about. Also, watching your own footage lets you see what mistakes you are making and adjust. A player has to be able to see why they are failing and think critically on how to improve on them selves or else that player will kind of just stalemate at what ever skill level they are at and never improve.
I think that its important to make that distinction with people. You could know how to do every technical thing in the game possible but if you are not able to learn from your mistakes and grow then learning the technical aspect of Gears is going to be pointless. You are going to be mindlessly wallbouncing/canceling every where, strafing for the sake of strafing, roadie strafing mindlessly and then coming out of runs and shooting at nothing. These people always look like they are fighting ghosts which is funny to me lmao. People have really bad habits with their movement because they think they can spam tech skill and get away with it and that is true against lower level players but those same people will play against people who are better than them and not know why there losing and rage when all they had to do was stop and logically think about why they are failing so they can actually beat that person the next time they play them.
Also, all that stuff I talked about was only individual skill which is only half of Gears. A players also needs team skill/awareness. At the end of the day Gears is a team based shooter so also being able to do the thing I discussed above but with team elements of the game is always very important. I feel like this post is getting on a little too long but what I am trying to say is that out side of the things you can visually show people you should make a point about Gears awareness as a whole.
Also, I would be glad to help anyway I can with this if you would allow me to.
Awareness and skill can’t be properly taught even though its something players desperately need, I completely agree. But, picture this.
You’re new to gears, you’re excited to play but in your first match you see this guy bouncing like a maniac and shooting from what seem to be impossible angles judging from the killcam.
Up + A
Back + A
Reaction shots
Wallbouncing
My idea is to make small videos that are not even 30 seconds long to explain these things along with a description under the video. Teach basic things to help them “understand”. Like an advanced tutorial without getting into too many details.
Also yes, I need to separate each topic but since I didn’t have that many questions I wanted to wait a bit and hear feedback in general. I don’t aim to make a “how to play” guide to help people reach Masters, but a basic guide to help everyone with little tips that not everyone may know since TC doesn’t really have a platform that explains these things other than the streams (that a lot of people don’t watch)
In time, I could try to make more advanced topics to keep the Handbook growing, but keep the format of very small videos so people don’t feel overwhelmed at
Also, REALLY appreciate the time you took to write all that!
If all you are aiming for is the basics that will prepare people for what they are going to experience in versus than I think what you have planned is fine. Its better if the videos are short and concise like you said anyway.
I think its also important to explain how the cover/camera works and how shooting while in cover and shooting while moving out of cover works because things like reaction shots(wrap around shot what ever you are gonna call it) and back As are very unintuitive for the untrained eye.
You could also add a section talking about spacing. Everyone likes to crowd together and bum rush areas on the map and the poor spacing and positioning usually gets people killed which goes back to what I was saying about team skill being just as important as individual skill. Everyone has a role and not everyone on the team can be the “slayer.” Support is just as important to winning.
