Teaching Curriculum

This is subject to suggestions/editing, so please critique on how this curriculum can be made better!

Spoiler:

Just as a general note to GOP pedagogy: I think it might be difficult to teach in things like 'speed' and preventing misclicks, as these are mostly motor skills that imparting knowledge on won't affect much. At least so as I remember progressing in GOP, training to avoid misclicking, speed and reacting to spawns faster was never a conscious issue with me. Some 'deepity' tips might be encouraged, though; such as "remain calm", and, my favourite, "a single tick is an eternity if you just let it be". What we do know that can be taught and, mayhaps, should be stressed, is crude knowledge in the game. Further convincing guidance to one's playing style could be backed up by tick-counting examples or puzzles.

To that, I hope we could generate a puzzle library and name them systematically "Gop Academy Puzzle #1", f.ex..

EDIT: I made a post about my first cast of the course on Modern GOP: https://gopacademy.forumotion.com/t111-gop-school-timo-s-course#275

I want to make another input about how learning GOP at the most basic level and onwards can be structured. Mayhaps attempt to structure everything there is to know about skill (what can provide insights into how best to GOP) in GOP in an assembly curriculum.

Also, this project could level insight into how to structure a decent introduction to GOP on the runescape.wikia.com page. 


Criticism/emphasis on some points in Arys' curriculum: ~

Quote :

Does the student go out of his way for one difficult spawn?
Only do so when both other orbs are in the process of being scored.

I would argue that this applies only in some cases where you can assume to neglect that orb for the rest of the game, or "wager" to do so. If it's early in the game, incorporate that spawn in a plan to score the set of 3 orbs most efficiently with multiorbing or just going for it when closest to it.

Also, I think I have an idea, but what is/elaborate on "Orb grouping" in Active training Level 2?

"Reading your partner", I think this needs some good analysis, and I'm not certain how to elaborate on it myself.

Suggestions on a GOP Curriculum : ~

1. Basic game mechanics and the purpose of the game, Theory of GOP, 

•    You can manipulate the path of an orb with the attractor wand or the repel wand when you click the orb. You will continue to manipulate its path (hold it) until you start some other action, like running or moving another orb. You gain one point everytime you score an orb, and the orb is scored by moving it into one of the 16 immediately adjacant tiles of the centre stone of the altar. When one orb is scored, it follows that a new orb appears in a random spawnpoint of that altar, always maintaining the balance of three orbs in game. Spawnpoints are where orb has the possibility of appearing, and their location is specific to each altar and never changes. There are almost 200 spawnpoints around and outside the circle of pillars in the Air Altar.
  
•    The purpose of GOP is to score as many orbs as possible within the time given for the altar, alone or with a team. It can also be to merely score more than your opponent team, in which case defending is a reasonable application.
  
•    If to start thinking artistically about the game, and work to improve upon it, a basic mindset endows wisdom such journey. Consider that GOP is a puzzle game. The puzzles are made up of everchanging sets of three orbs, and their solutions are how to score these sets the fastest, with concern also upon the fastest way to score forthcoming orbs. Angles and principles are tools you can solve them with.
  

2. Ticks, prototicks and tick-counting.

•    The basic unit of time in GOP is called a tick, and lasts for 600 milliseconds. All ticks start and end continously for all goppers alike. All actions (e.g., click an orb) you register within one tick will begin to take place when the next tick starts. This constitutes a 'rhythm' for GOP that is wise to pay attention to.
  
•    If you are idle for one tick or more, you may register a click on an orb and its path will be manipulated at the beginning of next tick. There are some conditions that induce a delay of one tick before being able to manipulate an orb. This phenomenon is called a prototick.
  
• Prototicks occur when:
  
  
  
  • You were manipulating the path of an orb for no more than one tick (a tap), the tick before registering a click on another orb. (gives rise to 2-tick holding)
    
  • You stop movement in the same tick as you click the orb . (gives rise to premovement)
    
  • You click an orb that causes you to move for no more than one tick (one-tick gap), immediately after having tapped an orb in the initial position.
    
  • Using the "change-wand" option.
    
  
  
• If you complete a prototick on one orb, you can switch to another orb to immediately influence it.
  

3. Movement.

•    An orb moves, generally, 1 tile (basic unit of length in GOP) per tick in all directions. Your character runs 2 tiles per tick and walks half of that speed.
  
•    When you release the hold of an orb, it will travel to its destination tile, 2 tiles away, from where it was when you released it, unless its path is blocked by obstacles. In that case, it will either go around the obstacle, towards the closest point of its destination tile, for up to 4 tiles if the obstacle is small enough, or it will cease moving. The shortest amount of time you can hold an orb for, is one tick. That action is called a tap.
  
•    The WESN-theory is used to explain when an orb must choose what direction to take, it prioritises taking the direction in the following order: West > East > South > North.
  

4. Angles and angle symmetry

•    Angles all around GOP, all altars, are two different points that can be reached from eachother, and sequences of moves to manipulate an orb to a destination.
  
•    You can reach all tiles within 10 tiles away from you in every direction (8 tiles for repellor), unless the line of sight is blocked. The rules that determines how the line of sight is perturbed, and thus what angles are reachable, are different for West and East. That is to say, orbs east of you are reached with different angles than how orbs west of you are(!).
  
•    You must learn at least a few of these by heart. Luckily, Icy001 created an impressive tool for just that. The GOP Angle Map shows all possible angles, and is a quick reference to learn angles or refresh forgotten ones.
  

5. "Coord"; proper teamwork. (someone with mind should work to optimise this point in curriculum! I'm rambling).

•    "Coord" (from "coordination") is a normative construct of some fundamental rules designed to approach the most efficient way to gather orbs in a team of 2 (duet) to 5 goppers. These rules can be divided into two catagories: positional rules and tactical rules. ;(I've only dealt with close-altar coord yet. Anyone have any idea about how to coord on larger altars?).
  
•    Conventional summary of these Coord rules can be arranged as so: Stand on opposite side of altar, on centre tiles (f.ex. East Centre and West Centre on air altar), and, if present, have additional teammates stand on vacant Centre tiles (South Centre and/or North Centre, e.g.). Score orbs on the opposite side of altar, and feed orbs, on your side of the altar, that your partner(s) cannot reach on your side of altar. Where orbs are to all parties out of range, the coorder without work should approach it. Where work overlap, share it equally as to leave all parties with as little time to idle as possible (stealing, leaving, partial feeding, ...).
  
•    Positional Rule #1; Area of reach: The assembly of goppers should be arranged to reach (scoring reach, without having to move) as many spawnpoints as possibly, so that they don't have to spend ticks moving to get to some orbs.
  
•    Positional Rule #2; Partition of work: The coorders have tasklists depending on their position, whereby their indevidual work is  defined. One's indevidual work is the amount of orbs that are their task with greater priority than one's partner(s), and the amount of ticks these orbs require before they are no longer the priority of oneself. This should be equally distributed, and should be a factor in designing one's coord setup along with the total area of reach.
  
•    Tactical Rule #1; Jurisdiction of convenience: It is the greatest priority for a position to score or feed certain orbs that other positions cannot beneficially manipulate or are more inconvenienced by doing so. These orbs are on the respective gopper's tasklist.
  
•    Tactical Rule #2; Minimising time spent idling: If all other parties in the coord team has work, there is benefit in acting on orbs outside one's conventional tasklist, however much greater the inconvenience is compared to other positions, even when this orb is on their tasklist. This rule is a general one where it can be further analysed into concepts such as "stealing", "leaving" and "partial feeding".
  

6. Timing? The art of when to release hold of orbs.
7. Applied tick-counting

• The tick/tile ratio
  
• 2-tick holding
  
• Ctrl-running
  

8. Philosophies of balance

• Orb potential
  • Timing potential 
  • Preholding potential 
  • Orbdrag potential
  
  
• Position potential 
  • Spwan wagering
  
  

9. Applied movement (Pythagoras principle? Hypotenuse*2=cathetus b+cathetus a)

• Pythagoras principle
  

P.S.: What do english people call "katet"? "Cathetus"?

kates!