The complete Fortress tutorial?

[Flex]

I'm looking for people who are willing to write a complete tutorial on everything regarding Fortress. Obviously this has been done before, but this time I want to work together with a few people and make a complete guide. I'm not talking about a small explanation! I'm talking about something that's good enough for someone that has never installed the game reading this and then being able to play Fortress!

With effort from everyone and support from the developers to make this worth writing we need it to be supported with an 'official' stamp. Of course if it's not worthy we will scrap the idea, but at least we can start from somewhere, right? Also for it to be taken seriously and given realistic attention it needs to be hosted on the main site.

I know every day people go on and on about a guide to Fortress and a good explanation for the new comers, so let's do it!

The conditions are clear, if everyone has agreed and we have people. Let's do it!

So this will be the draft thread and somewhere to provide ideas and show the work.

Can we also link the previous tutorials on Fortress, if there is any so that we may cut any useful information into the official version. (With credits of course.)

Some basic things that will be in the Tutorial:

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What is Armagetron Advanced?
What is Fortress?
What exactly do I do?
What is Grinding and how do I do it?
What is Splitting and how do I do it?
What is Defending and how do I do it?
What is Sweeping and how do I do it?
What is Attacking and how do I do it?
What is Holing and how do I do it?
What is Ganking and how do I do it?

Added:

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What is Shuffling and how do I do it?

The structure of the tutorial/guide:

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I. Introduction to Fortress
   A. Gameplay Basics
      i. The grid and zones
      ii. Rounds and scoring
      iii. Communication with teammates
      iv. Key terminology
   B. The Different Positions
      i. Attackers
      ii. Defenders
         1. Goalie
         2. Sweepers
II. Techniques
   A. Beginning the Round
      i. The grind
      ii. Splitting off to your position
      iii. Shuffle
   B. Attacking
      i. General techniques
      ii. Holing
      iii. Ganking
   C. Defending
      i. Goaltending techiniques
      ii. Sweeping techniques
III. Summary and further reading

Include anything I've missed.

[Lacrymosa]

Definately a good idea Flex. I have already started some kind of guide here. It isn't complete yet, but if you want to use parts of it, feel free to ask.[/url]

[Flex]

Hey, that looks good! I haven't read it completely, but I think it would be a good idea to completely take yours and improve on it?

What do you think?

[hoop]

nice guide LukeSky very nice job

one more important thing: "What is shuffling and how I do it?"

peace

[DDMJ]

If you really want to allow people to "install the game, read the tutorial, and be able to understand how to play fortress" I would suggest making a Video Tutorial or at least using pictures like Luzi did for his.

[epsy]

i also suggest having a server that's not fully locked up

[sinewav]

I would suggest making a Video Tutorial...

Well, let's not forget 2020's work...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RFaDPE4qptM

He's got the video thing down pretty well. Maybe after the tutorial is written, it can be filmed and narrated. I'll be watching this project with interest. Unfortunately, I don't think I have much to contribute.

[Flex]

Yes, we definitely need a video tutorial with the whole thing. With most of the current videos that try to explain something, they don't do it in slow motion or at least slow the video down to give a good visual. That's something we definitely need to make sure on.

[Lacrymosa]

Feel free to use my stuff for your work. As I said, it isn't complete yet, but I try to add the missing parts, for example the shuffle thing.

A video tutorial would be nice, I used animations in my tutorial.

[sinewav]

Maybe if there was a solid outline, then we could collectively submit chunks of text to the editor, Flex. I came up with the outline below. But, I'm not a Fortress expert by any scale and I can only guess what I'm missing. Feel free to revise.

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I. Introduction to Fortress
   A. Gameplay Basics
      i. The grid and zones
      ii. Rounds and scoring
      iii. Communication with teammates
      iv. Key terminology
   B. The Different Positions
      i. Attackers
      ii. Defenders
         1. Goalie
         2. Sweepers
II. Techniques
   A. Beginning the Round
      i. The grind
      ii. Splitting off to your position
      iii. Shuffle
   B. Attacking
      i. General techniques
      ii. Holing
      iii. Ganking
   C. Defending
      i. Goaltending techiniques
      ii. Sweeping techniques
III. Summary and further reading

Even though defense is all important, I thought "attacking" should come before "defending" since some information might be redundant when explained the opposite way. Oh, and I could probably make some diagrams and stuff, like fig.1 and fig.2 - you know what I mean.

[Pathetique]

This is a ridonkulously great idea. Perhaps someone could make a flash tutorial for this? I mean, there's nothing like step by step diagrams that show you what you're supposed to do, in what sequence, and for how long.

Not to mention, tactics can always be best expressed through picture form.

If I could get friggin flash, I'd be willing to do it.

[Flex]

Feel free to use my stuff for your work. As I said, it isn't complete yet, but I try to add the missing parts, for example the shuffle thing.

A video tutorial would be nice, I used animations in my tutorial.

Thanks, and I will probably use most of your stuff, so that's why I'm asking rather that we combine everything you've done and work from there using Electric Turtles structure?

But I think I already made that clear and you're not so interested in working together and I guess where this whole thing needs to go is on the wiki.

Maybe if there was a solid outline, then we could collectively submit chunks of text to the editor, Flex. I came up with the outline below. But, I'm not a Fortress expert by any scale and I can only guess what I'm missing. Feel free to revise.

Code: Select all

I. Introduction to Fortress
   A. Gameplay Basics
      i. The grid and zones
      ii. Rounds and scoring
      iii. Communication with teammates
      iv. Key terminology
   B. The Different Positions
      i. Attackers
      ii. Defenders
         1. Goalie
         2. Sweepers
II. Techniques
   A. Beginning the Round
      i. The grind
      ii. Splitting off to your position
      iii. Shuffle
   B. Attacking
      i. General techniques
      ii. Holing
      iii. Ganking
   C. Defending
      i. Goaltending techiniques
      ii. Sweeping techniques
III. Summary and further reading

Even though defense is all important, I thought "attacking" should come before "defending" since some information might be redundant when explained the opposite way. Oh, and I could probably make some diagrams and stuff, like fig.1 and fig.2 - you know what I mean.

That's a great idea, We'll do it exactly like that! Thanks.

[Pathetique]

So I obtained Flash, and am starting to work on a flash project to present the information that the Guide/Tutorial will contain in an interactive way. I still feel step-by-step animation of what happens would be a great idea because you see things in the game and then figure out how to do them. The basic diagrams that LukeSky has on his blog is a perfect example of learning by seeing.

Also, a lot of people gravitate to pictures more than text because its easier to describe something with visuals than with words.

[K-Yo]

I'm willing to help on this project
I'm thinking of doing something similar since few month.
What do you really want to do?
an online tutorial seems the best, but maybe have it downlodable in pdf after that (by the way I found an "armagetron_manual in pdf made by ".:Avl:.C10ud" -- http://flynnsarcade.net/armagetron_manual.pdf -- ).
That should be a page that beginners can easily find (once done, maybe a link on the download page) and where we can find more datas than only a tutorial, the list of servers, and the average skill level needed for each of them, ...)

Another Thing: as soon as this tutorial has a first version, we should translate it in as many languages as possible, we see on the servers a lot a newbies that are not good enough in english to understand a tutorial. I think we can find a lot of languages in the arma community among the players who'd agree to help

What can I do? is there any part you'd like me to start to write? or maybe the design of the pages (but I'm not that good in Design, better in writing or making the website architecture).

ADDED:
After further thoughts, maybe do a COMPLETE guide for beginners (nothing new here) and some other categories with advanced techniques, e.g. how to keep speed to attack, how and when to hole your own def (if an enemy took your defender position) <- this move is sooo useful to save your def sometimes, and too few players don't know when a teammate does it or don't know how to do it. I managed doing it only 2-3 times, and only with quite skillful teammates (without instant chat). etc.

[Lacrymosa]

As for the translation part, my tutorial has already been translated in german: http://www.nixda.net/start.php?navi=faq ... ssTutorial