I've tried to play DDRace server with the official DDRace Android client, for like 5 times already. So I reach that black ninja tile, and weapons don't work, moving doesn't work, rope doesn't work, I'm totally stuck, I cannot even suicide. How the hell can people enjoy DDrace? Are they know each level and all black tiles by heart ? Some levels have you literally surrounded with that, with only one small hole at the top.

You can kill and restart if you fail (I usually bind [k] key to it, by opening F1 console and typing: "bind k kill") and you can also wait to be dragged out of the freeze by other tees. Some servers also have the "/r" command on (you can bind it using: bind r say "/r") - it moves you back to the last non-freezed position (if you use it again immediately, it also unfreezes you). DDNet have "/r" disabled on purpose, to encourage teamplay and helping each other - if you take a bigger team it's not really necessary.

Most maps typically begins with a solo part. If you don't know how to do it, remember that you can always pause and look at other players by typing "/pause" in chat (type it again to unpause).

But if you want to learn playing DDRace, you should start on some crowded DDNet Novice server, that way you will always be able to look how other tees do parts or ask for help. You can also call votes to change map or server type (but please, always check if people aren't already far in the map, before voting another). The best way to learn playing is to choose an easy Novice map (1 star of difficulty, can be checked via "/mapinfo" in chat or via the map list in votes). You can also click on maps, and explore them before voting, here: http://ddnet.tw/ranks/novice/. I highly recommend playing Just2Easy and Gold Mine, followed by Introduction, Water Lily, Multimap and Seasons later. No_Stuck is also an easy map, but it's a Solo one (player interactions are disabled). Seasons is actually a pretty good intro map, with tutorial-like tips, but it's quite long and the latter parts are harder and more faily (that's why I didn't put it first on the list). Nevertheless, if you don't care about finishing a map or not and only want to learn basics, the first half of this map might be a good start.

You can also ask on popular servers if somebody could help you in learning.

JonastheRoman, pelya: I can help you learn DDRace basics. Just message me in game* or on the DDNet Forum (http://forum.ddnet.tw/) - I check the inbox there more frequently than here.

* You can find me when I'm online, using the quick search field below the players list.

I've tried to play DDRace server with the official DDRace Android client, for like 5 times already. So I reach that black ninja tile, and weapons don't work, moving doesn't work, rope doesn't work, I'm totally stuck, I cannot even suicide. How the hell can people enjoy DDrace? Are they know each level and all black tiles by heart ? Some levels have you literally surrounded with that, with only one small hole at the top.

The Android client is for spectating and chatting only. I guess I should write that somewhere. DDRace is unplayable without mouse and requires a lot of precision and patience. Also, I don't even have an Android device to test the client on, so I'm not investing major time in developing it. I only made it based on your Android version because people repeatedly asked me for it to spectate and chat.

People are working on tutorials. I know we don't have any so far. So far the idea is to start on easy Novice maps (1-3 stars) and go from there by talking to people.

It's true, but that's why we'll create the tutorials. And besides that, the chat is always available.

To be honest I didn't even know how to use the chat in the first days. I also think Novice maps could be easier for total newbies, because I even have problems playing them today, although I am already a vanilla veteran.
So yeah, a properly implemented tutorial should definitely be created, if this gets greenlit.

It's true, but that's why we'll create the tutorials. And besides that, the chat is always available.

I hope the tutorials will be implemented in the client (running a local server with a special map, and since DDClient is capable of having sounds in the map,you could possibly use those for commentating/narrating/explaining). If done correctly and easy to understand, it will definatly help out a lot.

Easy DDRace maps are not so hard

Have you seen new players in CTF5?
For most of the new players getting around CTF5 is even hard.
Also, some maps have freeze tiles in the beginning, new players don't know how to suicide and will just disconnect (or spectate-rejoin and thus lose his motivation really quickly, takes too long for nothing).

This is because you are there personally helping them, they are friends of you.
I bet a lot of new players will give up very fast, nobody is there to motivate them to complete it.

DDRace is just a slightly too steep learning curve, especially when playing alone for the first time.
If you have friends with you, sure, start learning teeworlds on DDRace, it'll be somewhat hard but it'll be doable.

Fifi wrote:

not so much into launching Teeworlds and spending a few minutes configuring it and checking all menus.

Yeah. because DDRace is just "Join and Play", especially for those new players.
You can't start with DDrace, too hard for new players to learn how the game works.

Easy DDRace maps are not so hard, many of my friends started playing Teeworlds from DDRace and it worked well. If it'll get greenlit, we will create a tutorial and help new players (DDNet Client already points to Novice servers at a first start).

Yep, the separation is done in 0.7, but it'll probably take a long time before 0.7 get released, so I'll be really happy if somebody could add this one feature to 0.6...

This is already done in 0.7

Oh really? Nice. Was a while since I last looked into the trunk version.
I just did a mock-up which I wanted to post here. Doin' it anyway.

Fifi, that's an interesting idea you've got there. Instead of the "Internet" tab, there could be a "vanilla" and "mods" tab. Or within the Internet tab, just seperate it into two halves.
That would seperate vanilla better from mods while also making the existence of mods a bit more obvious.

This is already done in 0.7

For all those of you, who don't get why DDNet should be released on Steam too
Teeworlds player base greatly increased when it got released there. But DDRaceNetwork playerbase didn't:
http://ddnet.tw/stats/

I wish the people could notice the modded servers, but it seems that it's a nontrivial task for many of them to notice and uncheck those 2 filters. Just the same way as "extracting a zip file is a non-trivial task for many people", which was a valid point when we discussed Teeworlds release on Steam.

You also have to remember that Steam players have tons of games and they are not so much into launching Teeworlds and spending a few minutes configuring it and checking all menus. They are used to launching a game and just playing, so it's very likely that they may never find out about mods, which would be really bad (personally, I would like to see some kind of big button pointing to mods servers which would also separate them more).

And moreover, tons of DDNet players (which were the vast majority of Teeworlds players at the time) helped the original game to get on Steam, so please help us too. ^^

It's completely obnoxious to release some modded client as a stand-alone game on steam.
I am fully disgusted at this action, it's completely unneeded.
It might (is) be true that DDRace is the best mod, has the most frequent updates and all that marketing bs.
However, it is fully build upon Teeworlds. It is exactly the same game.

New players won't enjoy playing DDRace, because they suck hard at it, so it's not even useless to post it on steam, it will very likely even scare away genuine new players.

Don't get me wrong, I do support DDRace but the steam release is just completely wrong. just wrong.

Yeah. because DDRace is just "Join and Play", especially for those new players.
You can't start with DDrace, too hard for new players to learn how the game works.

I hope this doesn't make it through greenlight.
But again I say, I do like DDRace (but can't play it because of clientside rubberbanding-ish. really destroys DDrace ).

(Quickly written)

oh, but fifi, mods are evil.

Oy wrote:

It should be seperated from Teeworlds completely and go its own way.

In such case, allowing DDNet to get on Steam and go its way is the simplest way to do it. I would add that vanilla client mod-button too, though.

About why we haven't submitted it before - I'm not sure, but deen probably didn't want to steal players, as the Teeworlds release on Steam was important for the vanilla revival to take place.