I've thought this for a long time. Warlight isn't always the kindest to new players. Playing AI's doesn't prepare you for playing real players. And it's not really clear where to go to find good advice on how to play.

There's been some guides published 3v3 Europe being the one that comes to mind immediately and there was Voodoo's business idea (How did that go Gui?)

But they seem to get lost in the ether too quickly, the Noobschool tutoring thread is archived now as well.

I think it would improve warlight if people could make guides to go in there own seperate section of warlight - or a wiki. But it would have to be easily found from the dashboard or the forum list.

It would also be best if the guides had to be pre-approved before they got published - like the maps do now, by Fizzer or a mod or by approval of the warlight community. And they should be 'stickied' so they wouldn't get archived and become hard to find again.

Some guides that I think new players would be interested in reading are:

1v1 Medium Earth / Ladder Guide
2v2 Medium Earth / Ladder Guide
3v3 Europe
Picking
Setting pre-requisites on games
Making Games
Making Maps

And of course there will be others ...

(I know some of these have been made already and they should be re-published here, my point is for a new player stuck in the purgatory of being a low level and playing other newbs, n00bs and alts it can be frustrating and hard to know where to look to improve your game to a level where you start to see the more experienced players games.)

Edited 8/6/2014 22:03:53

Personally I think the best way is to join multiplayer games. Lots of them. When I first joined Warlight, I joined about 30 games in the first week. I played maybe 2 AI games. And no guides. That said, I think that I could have done better in the beginning if I had guides. And I'm sure that there are definitely a number of things that I could learn at level 52.

Unfortunately, I'm not much of a writer or a tactician - it's more intuitive for me - so I couldn't really make a guide.

Yeah thanks for the reply, experience does trump theory in my opinion too.

i do think though that since levels and lottery games, when you come in as a new player your in a kind of wilderness where your first impression of warlight is playing other low level players - due to level filters and seeing a lot of lottery games and no doubt more boot to win and early leavers. And it can't be the best learning experience to have to go through all that, thinking that's what the game is all about and picking up bad habits before you get to say level 20. Then get thrown in with the specialists.

I was lucky in that The Offender pretty much sat next to me in an internet cafe in Seoul showing me the ropes and playing 3v3's on my team and explaining what I should do and why. And he knew people like Gui and Myhandisonfire so I got to look at the history in early games with players who even then were way above my level. But I doubt I would have even thought to spend that time looking over the history of a loss if he hadn't shown me how and why I should.

It would be best for warlight as well if more knowledge was shared and people spent more time helping others improve, because in time this improves the competition, which improves the standard of games. And one day someone you helped learn will be helping others in the same way.

Edited 8/6/2014 23:41:03

I'm completely with you on this Ska2D2, I was actually in the process of writing my own strategic 1 vs 1 guide, although it got put to the sideline recently in favour of a couple different projects. The plan was to write it and edit it myself, and then talk to other top players about looking over my work and adding their own ideas/correcting mine. After that I would post it on the forum, hope it goes notable, and see what could be done about adding it to the wiki. A strategy guide section of WarLight would be much more beneficial though.

It was actually fairly close to getting done... I'll get back on it now actually, maybe have it done in a few days if I put the effort in.

I said it before, and i'll say it again. The wiki could really use some guides explaining the popular templates like you've shown. 1v1 Ladder ME atleast is already there.

http://wiki.warlight.net/index.php/Category:Templates

Clavicus - It's great to see there is the ability to put guides in the wiki. But I do fear that new players who start of casual - they may click from facebook, wouldn't know about the wiki and so may never find it. So I do think it's crucial to make guides easy to find for new players. It's my impression that the wiki is only really known by the more experienced players and regular forum users.

Garret - Brilliant kudos on making a guide I respect anyone who puts the time in to help others learn and pass on knowledge. But I worry that as brilliant as you make your guide - I worry that after a month or so of exposure warlights archiving system will mean it will eventually disappear from view, like other great guides have, and like the learning thread did.

So I hope Fizzer reads this and can set up some system where we can share knowledge, help new players and keep it visible to them.

I'm encouraged by the comments so far :) The more of them saying it's a good idea may make it actually happen :)

Putting the guides on the forum isn't enough for what you want. Most players NEVER visit the forums, most others take months to click community (generally when they start on the ladder).

I'm happy to write a couple of guides to do with WL site mechanics - I doubt my skill level is sufficient to write proper gameplay guides.

They need to be visible to new players and not disappear, that should be the main point taken from what I'm saying :)

Maybe in the introductory message a link to the guides? Or maybe when a player reaches level 4 (required to post on forums), a popup could introduce them to the community tab (telling them about forums, other stuff and maybe guides as a separate tab).

I am a new player and I'd like to say I am encouraged by this thread. I am on the verge of deciding if I want to be at all serious about WL or not. I would read guides. This is an amazing site & game, but kind of overwhelming too. Even an easy to find glossary could be helpful. I spent a little while figuring out what a PE is (and why I wouldn't want to be one.) Another example: what are alt stats? or is it AI stats?

A glossary of WL terms, that could be useful.

Why don't you ask the things you don't understand and we can fill it out and put it in the guide?

The terms are on the forums :)
http://wiki.warlight.net/index.php/WarLight_dictionary

If I recall, GG has a guide, but I don't have the link :(

Thank for the link to the Warlight dictionary. Quite helpful. If I had seen it earlier, I would have avoided asking some stupid questions (felt like an idiot when I asked an opponent what gg meant and then asked him what gl meant!)

Still don't know what Alt stats are. Anyone?

How would you get a new player to read the guide?

By pointing them to it when they ask a common question?

I imagine it isn't a matter of getting players to read a guide as much as having one (or some) available for players who would like to read and learn more. Such things would cut down on frustration and help raise the level of play for everyone. As for those new players who won't read a guide, "no harm, no foul." The site is no worse off than before.

so what's a PE?

to answer the thread, i remember sze wrote a guide at some point, i have no clue where the link is anymore. and another was also working on one (i believe GG was mentioned, and that might be correct), also no clue where the link is anymore. The warlight wiki itself also has some basic hints. Then there are the WGL series, tournament live streams with live commentary, that give out some tips to newbies and pros alike. That would be the best guide to improve your game skills at this point imho.

https://www.mediafire.com/?44x2l0dj11yz1m5

My copy of GG's guide.

I think the issue is not so much that guides don't exist, but that it is hard for new players to find them.