There’s a big problem IMO with Link-Dead as it is now. I feel it is too complicated and it requires to read an extensive manual or I need to explain everyone what is happening every time we play. For example the alpha testers complain the Ubers automatic guns aiming is too wobbly and it takes too much time to have it steady so it needs to be changed. But this is not just an issue of balancing this factor. The weapon aim is currently a complicated mechanism and it is up to the player to determine the steadiness of his gun. Let me explain what affects the aim and you’ll see how much options there are:
The aiming in Link-Dead is done based on two cursors
– one which is your mouse aim cursor
– second cursor which is your actual gun aim.
Think of this as the mouse cursor being were your eyes are fixed at and the gun cursor where you are actually aiming with your hands and gun.
The mouse is of course always steady but the gun aim has several factors that determine were its position is currently:
– gun heaviness – the heavier the gun the slower the movement of the gun cursor is, because it is harder to move the gun around
– gun maneuverability – the higher the value the more wobbly the gun is during walking and such; this also affects bink – so if you get hit by a bullet the gun cursor jumps more
– gun recoil & recoil dissipation rate – how much kick the gun has after fire and how fast the gun can recover after fire
– this factor is also heavily dependent on gun fire rate, it’s not so easy to predict the guns recoil when it fires fast
– gun breath sway – as you know breathing affects your aiming, the more tired you are the more your gun wobbles with your breath – this factor decides how much the gun is affected by your breathing; guns carried against the hip are affected less then guns aimed against the chest
– gun steadiness – which is how fast the gun cursor merges with the aim cursor, so that the gun points were your mouse points at
This factor is broken down and has other factors that affect the steadiness:
– how far the mouse aim is from the player; this is an attempt to simulate in 2D the fact that when you aim at an object farther away it is harder to keep your gun aim at the target; so the farther you aim from your soldier the less steady the aim is; to make the gun super steady you can put the mouse cursor just a couple pixels from your soldier, but then you don’t really know what you are aiming at – you have to feel it – exactly like in RL
– fatigue/shock – the more tired or shocked the player is the harder it is to control the steadiness of the gun. Every kind of movement especially running and jumping adds a lot of fatigue; when you get hit by a bullet it adds fatigue/shock (which is the same thing as fatigue to make it simpler); furthermore firing for a long time especially automatic weapons adds fatigue (firing a big gun is hard work!)
– fatigue also heavily affects breath speed and its effect on gun breath sway (after a long run you have to wait a moment to calm down)
– wounds – if your upper body parts especially arms are wounded it might become practically impossible to hold your aim steady
– holding your gun against your shoulder; this is done with the secondary fire (mouse2) button; this makes the gun a lot more steady but is available only for guns with stocks (like an assault rifle)
To add to this there are also gun attachments like scopes and silencers. Typically every attachment you add weights something and adds to the heaviness of the weapon. Every attachment decreases the steadiness of the weapon because it lowers the natural balance of the weapons weight. For example adding an ACOG increases your aiming distance but having it on the gun makes the gun a bit harder to control. There are also attachments which combat the guns low points, like you can attach to the SMG a folding stock so that it is as steady as an assault rifle when pressed against your shoulder. But of course the folding stock also adds weight so when the gun is not pressed its performance is worse than without the stock.
This is just the stuff that is in the game right now. But there will be more attachments and even more variables. I will also implement prone position which is the best way to reduce recoil. Also adding an attachable bipod and possibility to put it on something like a window sill will reduce recoil practically to zero.
Now how do I tell a new player that the game is balanced and there is no need to increase the steadiness of weapons. He is just wounded, tired from running, has too much attachments on his gun and isn’t really aiming properly? Of course I can’t explain this to everyone so I need some good way for people to learn this without coming into the game the first day and getting frustrated at it.
I’m thinking the most obvious solution is to make a quick video explaining some key things like this to players to watch before they jump into the game. Actually this has stirred my creative side a little, I can think of a number of cool ways to do this 😉
Humm. yeah. i like the realistic concept of LD, but:
– how far the mouse aim is from the player; –
Well, this is not a very good feature IMO because most players run/walk/aim with the mouse most close to the border of the screen as possible. This feature will try to reeducate the players, which is not good.
Btw, would be fun to have a drug that improve your aiming..
Just link them to this wall of text every time they play.
But in all seriousness, perhaps add in visual cues, such as breathing sfx, bloody / blurred vision etc, and have them tie to the current aiming performance.
Gun weight should be visible in inventory. Is the feeling of mass present in the animation?
HT|: could you present all of this in a 1 minute video?
Underline: you shouldn’t really shoot while running anyways…
yeah drugs and stuff that temporarily increase some capabilities would be cool. Also maybe techno-implants.
FinDude: Gun weight should be visible in inventory. Is the feeling of mass present in the animation?
Everything is visible – how your gun sways, how fast you breath. When he’s wounded you can see him slouching. Bink is especially fun cause you see exactly how the gun swayed off when you hit the other player.
MM: I don’t think video’s etc are good; you will find many people don’t watch them.
Heck, many people (including myself) just skip over walls of text / dialog boxes with errors/information etc when it gets in the way of doing what I want.
Perhaps you should drop some of these game mechanics in favor of making it easier to play (for example “how far the mouse aim is from the player; this is an attempt to simulate in 2D the fact that when you aim at an object farther away it is harder to keep your gun aim at the target”).
Or maybe tool tips that appear when you first mount a gun for the first time, etc (even then this may be skipped by players).
Another idea is you could have the game detect when the player for the first time tries to shoot someone far away while aiming at them from a distance – as soon as they do this; popup an alert; or wait until they die and say “Hey! Note that aiming far away decreases your accuracy” and have a small accompanying picture that elegantly explains what you mean, etc.
I haven’t played the game yet; but I would much prefer real time tips in response to how I’m playing versus sitting through a 1 minute video, which I’d probably skip first off.
No visual clues damnit. If the player is too dumb to play the game, well he is too dumb. Adding useless stuff to the game in order to make it more “approachable” for the “dumb masses” just plain sucks. Even if it is just something minor like visual clue. Oh well, maybe a big RTFM icon for the first few times of playing the game.
Will there be different ammmo types dependent on the weapon? E.g. AK-47 uses 7.62×39, while AK-74 uses 5.45×39 rounds. 5.45 is more lightweight and accurate, while 7.62 is devastating because of the higher surface area and heavier projectile. Also, would there be a chance for a bullet to start yaw inside the victims body? If e.g. 7.62 exits the body before yawing, it doesn’t necessarily cause lethal wound, or even serious wound but if it beings to yaw, it will cause critical damage.
Andrew: yeah I skip all the help stuff too hence my problem
Clawbug: that is good stuff, definitely there will be different ammo types
Come on MM, we want blood. Post about what’s going on with soldat already. It’s been over a day, there is no way it could take you that long to write about it.
MM: Hm, I just had a few ideas on how to visually show those game mechanics:
1) Heavy Gun: Have a ‘tracer’ aimer that follows your mouse cursor, which is visually slower/draggier because of the gun weight
2) Far Aiming: As your reticle moves further away from your power, make it blurry / fade out / get bigger (less accurate)?
Hay MM, you’re not making a casual game here, I’d read volumes of your manuals if needed.
“how far the mouse aim is from the player”
This is just stupid (IMO ofc). Don’t try to make a 3D game with 2D physics/graphics/controls.
Make a must-play tutorial mission with visual/practical explanation of game mechanics and it’s ridiculously complicated PLOT :D. And just like Underline wrote.
How about the bipod?
Will it help in aiming a lot?
First off, I applaud your desire to create a truly realistic shooting experience; there are few FPS games that go as far as you have. Unfortunately, the graph of realism over player base is a bell curve; go too far over the hill, and nobody will want to play it. Recognizing that, I would make the various effects server variables, with a default of 50%. That way, everyone can set up their server to be as realistic as they wish.
Secondly, enlarging the cursor is a common method to visually get across loss of aiming precision, so using that should need no explanation. In addition, having it wobble while you are moving, and blurring/fading more and more as you are injured/etc., will quickly clue players in as to why their shots aren’t hitting anything. It also won’t take them long to figure out how to maximize their chances of getting a kill, as the cursor will shrink and steady right down when they are positioned properly. (I would also have weapons become more steady when propped against objects, like rubble, the edge of doorways, etc. Perhaps a grayscale map layer, showing the amount of steadiness of different areas?)
Do the current lightning conditions affect aiming?
DeadlyDad tells you the truth. If you’re going to implement different calibers of ammo, then how about ammo types? Armor Piercing, Full Metal Jacket, Hollow Point, Tracers… In real setting, you don’t see your bullets when you shoot them. You have no clue where the bullets are hitting, or are they even hitting anything. With tracers you can see the actual bullet fly, giving an indication where the bullets are going. They can also be used to indicate when the weapon is low on ammo.
For example, there’s a JRPG called Disgaea, which was hard and complex from the start, but people(including me) like it; the feeling that you know everything about it is also pretty good, especially when it seems hard to learn.
Hey MM, I’d prefer that second cursor to disappear (I think that is one of the main frustrating points atm). Display the inaccuracy of the weapon in another way. Most games just make the single visible cursor bigger if the accuracy decreases.
Definitely no text/tutorials, as the player doesn’t want to be educated, he wants to learn by himself. This is not a game for babies.
Also, remove the drop in accuracy when the mouse cursor is far from the player, since every player wants to have good visibility and point far. Again, don’t reeducate the player (as Underline said), instead, make it more intuitive.
I think the secret here is to make the game look approachable and intuitive, and don’t show all the functionality at once, you know? Like, if MS Excel had all its functions on the first page, you’d say “fuck this, it’s too complicated”. Instead, new players should see “wow, this looks nice and uncomplicated, let’s play” and when they get better at it, they find the “tricks and twists” in the background by themselves and use them to their advantage. Just make it look a little less complicated.
(imo this also includes the inventory)
Oh yeah, and make “hurt” players FEEL a bit more hurt. FinDude mentioned blurry/bloody screen. Maybe a bit shaky. Something in that direction would be nice. It’s being used by almost every single war game out there for a reason.
Suggestions
===========
I assume you don’t want to simplify gun aiming.
So here are my ideas: (Btw you could implement more then one)
1) User Manual:
—————
Write a user manual which explains how the weapons work and tell the player where to find it.
+ easy way to look stuff up
– nobody reads a manual before playing
– can get outdated pretty fast
2) Video tutorial:
——————
Show a tutorial video which explains the way weapons work.
+ easily done
– annoying (“why I just can’t start playing…?”)
– players skip (long/boring) videos
– they might not understand it after watching the video
– “wasted” time without playing experience
– changes force you to update the videotutorial over and over again.
3) Ingame tutorial:
——————-
Same as video tutorial just ingame and with scripting.
+ easyer to update then video tutorial
– see video tutorial issues…
4) Interactive Ingame tutorial:
——————————-
A script/bot explains how the stuff works while the player can actively it and gets feedback on his tries. Also graphical animations (integrated somehow) to illustrate stuff that takes too long to write about. And with as few words as possible (don’t make the player read a book…)
+ can be fun if done right
+ no boring waiting time
+ practice + learning (trying stuff the script explains to you)
+ feedback and suggestions for actions (so that you know your faults and what you did well)
– takes time to implement
– needs to be entertaining to make the player continue
– player actions need to be detected correctly to not annoy him
###
Note:
—–
The tutorial is the first thing a player sees so make it good enough motivate him to continue playing!
Don’t make the first impression be a bad one…
Suggestion 4 is my favorite one as you probably already guessed.
Have fun and keep coding!
Why should a player think they can understand a complex game just like that? Because it /looks/ simple? If you don’t have enough attention span to watch a minute long vid or read few sentences why do you think you’d ever do well in a game like this?
A shooting range level where you can choose all classes and loadouts with basic info and some training targets at different ranges, at varying cover and elevation, should be fine enough.
Guys, seriously. If this game is ever to go far beyond the fan-base, then it must appeal to new players as well as old. Even to such with less to none gaming experience. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Making the player feel like an idiot that has to learn rules or busting his chops with tutorials and making him worried of the game’s complexity is just gonna scare him off.
People don’t start playing a game in the thought of “doing well”, the first natural thought when starting playing a new game is the question “am I having fun?”. The skill development and the pursuit for proficiency progress with time.
About the idea of having the accuracy decrease the farther away the player aims is interesting. IMO it should be very minimal, yet it should be enabled/available. This would yet again allow some trickery to master with aiming, effectively making people experiment with different styles for maximum accuracy. 😉
The best way to inform the player, in my opinion, is to add an in game information system. It would be like a wiki but is split into general guides, and specific ones. Example: listing for all the weapons and their intricacies would be in the advanced section. General guides on aiming(like the one you posted) would be in the basic section. Add a tutorial that hints at concepts in the basic guides where players can refer to. In summary:
Step 1: Play the tutorial
Step 2: Refer to the manual for more detailed basic guidelines
Step 3: If needed/wanted, refer to the advanced articles
It’s a good system because it is suggestive, not too overwhelming, and allows the player to learn at the pace they want.
You might take a look at Dwarf Fortress. There are tons of videos, tutorials, etcetera made for that game, but almost none of them (I think) created by the makers of the game itself. Possible lesson to take from this: make a cool enough game, and attract a group of hardcore players, and they will do the heavy lifting of introducing newbie players for you. This might be especially true in a multiplayer game, since introducing new players has an immediate benefit for more established players, i.e. their are more people to play against.
As a side note, this description of the realism/complexity of the game has turned me from being mildly curious about, to definitely anticipating it.
tl;dr
Can’t wait for link dead!
The way I see it is like this:
Tell new players really obvious things, for the total noobs, i.e moving while shooting is not a good idea.
Keep all the intracacies and small factors that affect accuracy.
Have some sort of loose ranking system, possibly just stored within the portal (not visible to anyone), then let it match the noobs with the noobs (button somewhere “find server”, so new players will probably use it, experienced people can find their favourite servers etc.).
This allows new players to have fun (not getting owned) while they learn the ins and outs of the game, while experienced people get to play fun games too, learn how the game works etc.
I like the idea of less accuracy when the cursor is far away, it means you won’t be using a pistol as a sniper rifle. Also make an interactive in-game tutorial, and force them to have to play it on their first play. Don’t worry too much about complexity, just take a note from dwarf fortress, thousand of people play that, and it has fuck all for a manual, and I’m pretty sure it is on of the most complicated games in the world.
Heres an idea:
Provide some sort of gauge on the interface of the player’s screen which displays the current accuracy of the shot. Yes, I know what you’re thinking: “That’s what the change in size of the cursor is for!” But honestly, how annoying would that be to the new user, to see the cursor moving changing drastically in size more than the usual first person shooter cursor would change (due to breathing, weight of the gun, stance, etc.)
The gauge could be like a vertical bar. When the bar is at value = 0, then the shot will be completely accurate. The higher the indicator of the bar, the greater the inaccuracy of the shot.
Heres where the new user will finally understand the use of the bar:
– everytime you add on an attachment, change to a heavier gun, a spike in the bar will be displayed, and perhaps revert back to the value 0 slower.
– with every breath, you’ll see the bar move slightly up and down
– with running, you’ll see the bar change frantically
– with firing and recoil, again, the bar will spike accordingly
downside?:
I’d hate to see interface during gameplay :/
Currently, I don’t know what the right click mouse button is for right now, but maybe we could modify it so that when you hold down the right click button, a small display around your cursor will display the accuracy, in the same bar-spike manner.
Perhaps add textual info on the hud (doesn’t have to be simple or obvious, just let the player know what is affecting the aiming)
Maybe have really small text display stuff like:
gun heaviness: 2.3 kg
steadiness: 54%
fatigue: 21%
breath: 82%
etc
i.e. just display all your aiming variables on the HUD. Doesn’t have to be easy to follow. Just let the player know they exist and it isn’t a balance issue.
Perhaps ignore casual ponyhuggers for the time being and focus on getting the alpha fun to play.
How about the bipod?
Will it help in aiming a lot?
A bipod makes the aim perfect.
DeadlyDad: that is all good stuff. Putting guns against something for better recoil management is going to make it into the game for sure.
Do the current lightning conditions affect aiming?
No but it should. In darkness it should be impossible to aim well. But I haven’t done that yet cause this is very confusing for a player.
Armor Piercing, Full Metal Jacket, Hollow Point, Tracers…
This is good stuff and I will do this.
Tenshi: yeah good points. Shaking the screen gives a lot. When you aim right now with right mouse button the screen actually shakes with the gun cursor, this gives a feel of actually holding the gun. Can you see this?
Shoozza: I don’t think Link-Dead is that much complicated for it to require a tutorial. You can just step into the game and start playing. The problem is you don’t know about all the little things, like what affects the aim and why your gun isn’t steady at times.
FinDude: A shooting range level where you can choose all classes and loadouts with basic info and some training targets at different ranges, at varying cover and elevation, should be fine enough.
I like this idea a lot. Simple but not too simple. To make it fun there could be ducks or bunnies to shoot at.
Tenshi: Guys, seriously. If this game is ever to go far beyond the fan-base, then it must appeal to new players as well as old.
I want to appeal to as much people as possible. I fear that Link-Dead will become the game Love. Sure its brilliant but its too complicated at start and nobody plays it.
You might take a look at Dwarf Fortress. There are tons of videos, tutorials, etcetera made for that game, but almost none of them (I think) created by the makers of the game itself. Possible lesson to take from this: make a cool enough game, and attract a group of hardcore players, and they will do the heavy lifting of introducing newbie players for you. This might be especially true in a multiplayer game, since introducing new players has an immediate benefit for more established players, i.e. their are more people to play against.
As a side note, this description of the realism/complexity of the game has turned me from being mildly curious about, to definitely anticipating it.
Fantastic! This would be great. Right now I am explaining everything to the alpha testers. When the game goes public the testers will teach others and so on… might work.
jloops: the action is usually to fast to even measure the accuracy of the shot, it must be faster than that. Also the problem is not that you know the shot will be inaccurate cause that is fairly easy to see after you shoot but knowing WHY the shot was inaccurate.
Maybe have really small text display stuff like:
gun heaviness: 2.3 kg
steadiness: 54%
This already is displayed in the inventory menu. I will consider placing that on the HUD.
I like this, it’s drawing me in more. (I’ve been here sense the death match test) I want a preview. (maybe even a demo to play)
When I played it didn’t feel like it had a steep learning curve, but for me it felt more like a lack in interface. I mean you have this really cool box concept ( Jagged Alliance like ), but there was little/no visual feedback with the interface once I clicked, or dragged a weapon for example. It felt a bit dark, hard to get my head around what was going on the first time I used it till someone else explained the attachments.
“Shoozza: I don’t think Link-Dead is that much complicated for it to require a tutorial. You can just step into the game and start playing. The problem is you don’t know about all the little things, like what affects the aim and why your gun isn’t steady at times. ”
I think it is, however it may be common sense to a lot of players. Link-Dead will probably have many “little things”?
Maybe instead of doing a tutorial you can give the character vocals that respond on his current situation, ie: “Damn this gun is heavy”, “This wound really hurts..”. Or maybe you can give the player some visual confirmation about his kill, with some more detailed information about his kill together with some information about the character. Or you could show detailed information on the interface about the character like in jagged alliance with these statistics bars.
I would either integrate it within the interface, or into the game play to make the player aware of these things.
Thats really cool and I read the whole thing. I’m digging the sound of this!
I cannot wait for this game! Everytime I hear about this game, I get more and more pumped for this!
How about giving only ubermen a hud display on heart pulse/other science things that would reflect the physical condition, possibly even accuracy.
Also, plain crash test dummies can be fun to shoot at with a bit of effort; take this flash game for example (practice mode)
http://www.crazymonkeygames.com/fullscreen.php?game=thing-thing-arena-2
Very simple damage system, but looks cool enough, I think.
Tenshi said: Guys, seriously. If this game is ever to go far beyond the fan-base, then it must appeal to new players as well as old. Even to such with less to none gaming experience.
Go to hell. If you want to play Modern Waffle 2 then go play Modern Waffle 2. Do you really think MM can compete with EA or Activision and steal their fanbase? Link-dead isn’t supposed to be a MW2 in 2D.
The problem isn’t the game being complicated. The problem is matchmaking. A simple game means every idiot can jump right in and more or less know all the tricks of the game in a day of playing. A complex game means there are a lot more options. Of course hardcore players got it all figured out and will rape newbies. The way to avoid this is to pair newbies with newbies. People who have little comprehension of the game should play people of their level. When a player, who puts a bipod and scope on an SMG meets a player who puts a flashlight and beta-mag on a sniper rifle they both have more or less the same chances.
@archont 😀 dude, chill
These ideas are ingenious, imo:
@Spkka The idea with the guy saying “damn this weapon is heavy”. Reminds me of the vocals when selecting units in Starcraft. *epic* Hahaha, check out the Thor quotes with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s voice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFzQozF5kyU&feature=player_embedded#at=37
@FinDude yeah! The HUDs for the ubermen/mutants should be completely different, high tech vs almost no special info.
@Chutem Making a ladder ranking system would be so epic! One on which you can advance with experience and wins, and on which you always get to play against about-same-level players.
Fuck. I got frustrated at Soldat, the first time I played it. I got ass-raped repeatedly, while I was still trying to learn to maneuver. I even ignored Soldat for a year. But, I got back into it because it’s an awesome game, bit my tongue and learned to play properly. I still suck, but at least I have a lot of fun when I play.
We’ll learn to play your new game, don’t worry about it.
Just, please don’t dumb it down for anyone. If you think about it, Tribes is still to date one of the best shooters made because of all the things you could do in it. I still love Tribes. What other game can let you extend your radar range or lay down beacons for your teammates to pick up. Stupid and lazy people didn’t play the game – they wanted their call of duty, halo and other easy shooters. Screw them. If your game is worth it to play and worth mastering the difficulty – then it is totally worth it.
Why don’t you just make the cursor indicating gun position visible for the player. It would be floating around the real cursor, letting the player know how acurate the shot will actually be. Also maybe add tripods – on activation the gun would be really stable and shit but player wouldn’t be able to move.
Bipod shouldn’t make the gun completely stable. It doesn’t in real life either. It stabilizes it drastically, but isn’t prefect, mostly because that the person shooting with the weapon isn’t stable himself. Breathing and trying to stay still are the problems, and you can’t counter them 100 %.
@clawbug yeah but still – it’s a game, not real life. MM will have to go with some simplification on this one.
MM why don’t you hit the shooting range and hold a gun?
ZeroG001: what makes you think I haven’t?
MM
Have you played Savage 2 ? They have pretty cool in-game voice tutorials that I really loved listening to even if I had played the game a lot by then ! (it came up later)
You should also play the game because it is team-based and different. It made me think much on mechanics that I’d like or not in my own team game.
If that gun steadiness mechanic means you won’t necessarily shoot precisely towards your mouse-cursor, well maybe we should also see another cursor showing the “actual aiming orientation”.
Maybe this could help understand the mechanic but also help aiming?
Note that I’m talking blindly since I haven’t seen this game mech.
For the distant aiming being less accurate, this is true, but depending on the formula, it may be embedded in depending on how the randomness exists. Take a look at the picture:
[img]http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/6130/linkdeadweapon.png[/img]
For a very simple formula, calculate a random angle between the two dotted lines. Now whether your cursor is close to the player or further away, the accuracy decreases without any need to think about how close the cursor is to the player and how accurate it should be as a function of distance.
As with many first-person shooters, there is a circle around the player’s crosshair, with size representing accuracy of the weapon. This is not appropiate with a two-dimensional game, as accuracy is not in a circle like that, but rather in a triangular/pie shaped figure, as seen in the previously mentioned image. If accuracy is wanted to be shown, this is a great way to show the player roughly how accurate the weapon is. One problem with this is for slower speed projectiles (grenades for example), it does not represent where the projectile will land or travel through, but rather how it is thrown, or just how accurate the throwing is with out much meaning to its shape. This isn’t much of a bad thing, as it still portrays accuracy, but it may be a bit missleading.
Another idea to show accuracy is to color this accuracy circle or lines. If the player is full on health, then the circle or lines will apear normal and while (or whatever); although, the more damaged the player is, the less stable the player is, or in turn the less accurate the shots are going to be, and the more red the circle or lines are. This could also be used to portray how fatigued the player is, or any of the other factors.
There are many options in regards to trying to get first-timers understanding, or getting semi-experienced players to learn the variables that determine accuracy. Other ideas mentioned are great, but here are my thoughts. One way is to simple have various tutorial levels (in which the player actually plays on), each with a 10-20 second video that is played when the map starts, and having it re-playable. The first few tutorials would only use light weapons that are easy to handle, while further tutorials would use heavier or more advanced weapons. But the best way to learn after knowing the basics is actually playing, so it might be best to have small short deathmatches against bots after a few tutorials. Not all the mechanics to the game have to be mentioned, but the major ones should. Even if some concepts may seem intuivitive, they should be mentioned. For example, running and shooting will decrease accuracy.
For minor details unmentioned in the tutorials, in loading screens, text can appear on the bottom stating something. A simple example could be “Attachments affect a weapons steadiness. Even though attachments may aid in certain situations, it may also turn and bit you in the ass in others.”
The game must be playable by first-timers, otherwise they may think to themselves “this game sucks” and never play again. For multi-player, a system could be setup similar to that of Xbox Live with Halo or Call of Duty, where players have their own skill, and play against those with similar skills through a matchmaking service. A problem with this is if an experienced player plays with a new account, he would be stuck with the lower-skilled games at first. I’m not sure what the best method around this is, but it could be an option to not only provide a matchmaking service, but also a lobby of servers which players can join with their choice of what to join.
A suggestion is to exclude any message that display “PLAYER_A kiled PLAYER_B using SOME_WEAPON”, as they give the player an idea of what they did without actually seeing what they did. For example, if a player is by himself against a couple other players, and is spraying bullets all over, if he ends up killing somebody, the fact that he knows may give him an advantage, despite whether or saw himself kill him or not. Another reason is for this is it would be easier to fake your death, and use that as a trap to get your opponent to walk by not knowing you are dead, and sneakily killing him from behind with a knife or something.
Another suggestion is to not display player names (or maybe just enemy names). Knowing who an enemy is without actually needing to recgonize their outfit can give a player extra information, as he may know the player he is against is very difficult or not. A reason against this, though, is not knowing who exactly you like to play against after the game is over. An option is to have the displaying of names server-side optional.