Toggleable "Automated Mentor" System for New Players

Development Ideaguys
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Will format later as using phone currently at work

After teaching multiple new players over the last few days, it’s become increasingly clear that some of the more complex Xeno mechanics simply aren’t intuitive. There’s little to no visual prompting or in-game hinting for actions like devouring or nesting, and with the new tackle system, it’s now even harder to teach these mechanics manually. For many new players, trying to learn these systems solo often leads to unnecessary deaths and frustration.

To address this, I’d like to suggest a toggleable “Automated Mentor” system. When enabled, it would provide short, on-screen text prompts or guidance during key interactions. For example:

Devour: When grabbing a marine, a small text prompt could appear explaining how to devour them, or alternatively, the ability could become a glowing button (similar to other abilities) to make the action more discoverable.

Nesting: Since the new wall system is more aesthetic but less clear, prompts could appear explaining where and how nesting is possible (e.g., “You can only nest captives on walls with this type of resin weed”).

Pumping shotgun, and so on

Players could toggle this mentor system on or off in preferences, keeping it optional for veterans while giving new players much-needed guidance without having to ask or die repeatedly figuring it out.

This would significantly reduce confusion for newcomers, improve onboarding, and take pressure off mentors or players who have to constantly explain these hidden mechanics in the middle of a round.

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Isnt there a xeno tutorial?

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There’s tutorials, mentors, a discord help channel, and I even wrote a guide on how literally all of it works. There are resources available for players that put the effort in, but at the end of the day this is a complicated ass game and only determined players will be able to learn it. I don’t know how valuable it would be to go to the time and effort of coding an entire thing that explains base mechanics when said mechanics can be learned through a modicum of player effort.

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Solvable by just expanding the tutorial imo

Force everyone to play the tutorial before they can roll for anything :smiling_face_with_horns:

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I was half watching what probably lead you to make this post.

I’d argue that the hardest thing to learn is the basic SS13 control layout. While I’m not a mentor nor do I know how the mentors go about introducing new to ss13 players to its basics, I have had the pleasure of becoming budget SEA and teaching new to ss13 players before (Thanks admins for trusting me with overhead looc!!!), and I’m guessing people haven’t played the sorta clasical roguelikes that have similar inventory systems, which people find really hard to grasp. Additionally the idea of having to work with two hands (revolutionary!!!) is very hard to grasp, and honestly it can seem like a lot for brand spanking new players that items can have a inhand, unique action, other hand interact, and click drag abilities.

Perhaps the same system of hand holding prompts like in other games tutorials and making hud elements glow for the very first round of CM, obviously with a way to remove it. Hell make it for both sides.

I invite you to find your boyfriend/girlfriend, your gaming group, your parents, your siblings, whatever to take a look at the main menu, and ask them if they think the interface is concise for a brand new to ss13 player. Its a clusterfuck. I wont blame a new player being overwhelmed by the pure information that surrounds them on their entrance to ss13. Not to mention that theres a serious sizable population of gamers who don’t look at wikis for various reasons (and IMO for some types of games I refuse to read a wiki)

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Heres a bonus challenge, try to find how to make a mentor help based on this screen alone!

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What’s the point of making any tutorial ever, if dedicated players can just learn it through asking already-existing players?

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to introduce someone to this game, but the Youngins aren’t playing shitty little web games from the 90s, their games come with mandatory tutorials and simplifed controls that can be used on a Xbox controller with slim UIs designed by people with degrees in UX and UI design and years of industry experience.

Trying to teach someone this game is like coaching a little baby to do open-heart surgery.

CM13 is at the top of the server browser most days of the week, and majority of people coming in are new to Byond as well as CM13, it should be as easy as possible for new players to understand how to play!! If it’s too difficult to grasp then they’re going to quit!!

My complaints about the Tutorial

Also, the round structure (what you’re actually doing from 00:05) isn’t even explained in the tutorial. And, (to my surprise), many people don’t compulsively read the wiki of whatever game they’re starting to learn

Big +1 to this, every step should be taken to help new players!! More players = less lowpop!!

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There is a misconception that because CM is a complex or “hardcore” game, onboarding shouldn’t be simplified, but good game design has always balanced challenge with intuitive systems. Even games renowned for difficulty still use smart visual. Red barrel go boom and so on.

@ihatethisengine, Forcing people through a tutorial would still be better than the current situation, especially when perma-death is a real possibility and adding safeguards would be simple, it’s one route which could be taken.

@thebadperson I get where you’re coming from, but relying on guides and mentors alone isn’t good onboarding design. Most new players don’t think to stop mid-round and check Discord or read a guide, they just try to learn as they play, we’ve all likely done this with a game or two. When mechanics like devour or nesting have no in-game prompts and rely on external resources/basically being told how to do it by someone else, they end up confused or frustrated before they even know what to ask. A small, toggleable automated mentor system would simply bridge that gap by teaching in context without removing challenge, helping players learn naturally and stay engaged. Not to mention many of the guides and systems are out of date.

Intuitive design benefits everyone, mentors and staff spend less time repeating the same explanations, veteran players get smoother teamwork, and newcomers have a fairer learning curve.

An automated mentor system could display brief on-screen text boxes or big, bold guidance whenever a flagged “common issue” occurs (like grabbing a marine as a xeno, nesting, or using certain abilities). If made toggleable in settings, veterans could turn it off, while new players could keep it on until they feel confident. Even if you learn something on say, a tutorial, you may forget how specifically how to do it.

It’s not an overly complex feature, but it could make a big impact on player retention, onboarding quality, and community health overall.

@onetoughcreampuff also makes an excellent point, especially with the UI.

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when it comes to xeno abilities… there probably be some sort of tooltip of explanation - maybe being able to shift click to examine the buttons themselves to have a short description? because as i tried to learn to play xeno i didnt see any in-game explanation of the funny buttons on top of the screen at all, the only thing you get is the name of the ability which tells you nothing

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I’m a fan of any addition that helps newbies. Personally, I think this could be helpful, but I lean more in favor of putting a pop up in place that reads “Xenomorph is a fast paced role that relies on you having a solid grasp of CM13’s controls. If you haven’t already, you should complete the tutorial for this job, located in the main menu.”

That and actually making it so you can play tutorials when you’re dead (which I’ve wanted to implement for a while and just… never have) might help.

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I agree that we should have in-game explanatory elements, especially if someone skips the tutorial.
It is a tricky situation, Space Station 13 (and by extension, CM-SS13) is an incredibly hard to grasp game without guidance - Even players from other servers coming to CM-SS13 have trouble.

If you want my suggestions, the tutorial button should be in a bright, hard to miss green for someone making their first connection, and any attempts to join/ready-up with a pop-up saying something along the lines of ‘CM-SS13 is an incredibly complex game, are you sure you want to play without playing the tutorial?’
Also while we’re messing with the lobby UI, We should make the server-revision/test-merge list appear BELOW the ‘Welcome to CM-SS13’ Message Of The Day - The MOTD should be at the top.

Off the top of my head, theres a few ‘easy’ things we could do - add ‘Mechanics explainer’ descriptions in the same form of the ‘Extended lore descriptions’ some items have - simple stuff like how to load and use a firearm, how to use the radio, how to use the RTO pack.
We should also make it easier to make a mentorhelp - the lack of a keybind doesn’t help with this problem.

Trick question! It says ‘F1’, which is the key to Adminhelp*. There currently is no key to mentorhelp :(.
*Technically speaking, Admins have a ‘Defer’ option in their ticket system - but Mentorhelps should preferably go through the mentor system, as opposed to being deferred by Admins.

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